Berlin - LOU REED****

Berlin/Lady Day/Men Of Good Fortune/Caroline Says/How Do You Think It Feels/Oh Jim/Caroline Says II/The Kids/The Bed/Sad Song

Lou Reed’s Berlin must be one of the bleakest albums ever released. Despite this handicap it works very well in conveying the sense of hopelessness of a relationship breaking apart. (US:98 UK:7)

“Berlin is an underrated album, perhaps because many people jumped under the covers when they heard how perfectly depressing it is.” “It's tremendously difficult to listen to because he succeeds brilliantly at conveying the utterly depressing and devastating emotional tone of the story.”

“An often maligned album, Berlin is an ambitious, exhausting effort from Lou Reed. that tackles many universal 70s excesses: drugs, domestic violence, promiscuity and suicide.”

“The most harrowing music I have ever listened to. Reed manages to create music that is as beautiful as it is disturbing. The music is incredibly varied, leaping from style to style, without ever losing focus.”

“The themes explored by Reed on Berlin are not radically different to those that he deals with on other albums. What distinguishes this record is the intensity and the focus of both the writing and the performances. It isn't a concept album so much as a song cycle. Part protagonist, part weary onlooker, Reed manages to convey the sheer frustration as well as the sense of hopelessness as the central characters drift inexorably apart.”

“Here we have a much bleaker version of Lou, with an album that just gets plain depressing at points. He's also far more ambitious and conceptual than before. The album centres around a couple who are falling into a downward spiral of drug abuse, depression, prostitution, and everything else about the marginalised in society.”

“Unlike Lou's previous works that featured poppy single songs, this focuses on the album as a whole. All the songs work so well together, it's very cohesive. The composition and instrumentation are just so beautiful. From the start, with the soulful piano on Berlin moving into the song Lady Day that hits you with all these amazing instruments, the lush trumpets, the bold organ that gives the listener a sense that they're in for a great journey, and the flutes that work so well with the drums.”