Sally Can't Dance - LOU REED***

Ride Sally Ride/Animal Language/Baby Face/NY Stars/Kill Your Sons/Ennui/Sally Can't Dance/Billy

Sally Can’t Dance was the last high placed chart album from rock vocalist Lou Reed. He would record many more albums which appealed mostly to hard core fans. This release has been criticised for its overall bleakness of subject matter. (US:10)

“This would be your standard coked-out, overproduced '70s sleaze-rock disaster were it not for the fact that Lou spends the entire album making it clear that he hates absolutely everything and everyone. The lyrics, and barely disguised contempt in his voice, gives these songs a sting they might not otherwise have or deserve, and turns what would otherwise be a pretty mediocre album into something perversely fascinating.”

“There's some dreadful stuff on this record, including the title track. But there's also some surprisingly good material, too. I think Baby Face, whether or not tongue-in-cheek (and how can it not be) is pretty great.”

“Lou Reed's career was often a roller coaster of bad-to-worse but strangely enough this album, which the artiste himself hates, is one of his best. The top-flight studio musicians shape these barely there songs into something fairly decent, and Reed's fagged out delivery makes perfect sense in this context.”

“It sounds very tired, Reed's quavering voice doesn't really fit in with the arrangements, and the discord diverts attention away from the lyrics. Also, songs about the ravages of drugs, the horror of war and the sheer hell of just surviving in today's world have become such staples of Reed's catalogue we've become immune to their impact.”

“If ever there was an album that was entertaining in spite of itself, it's Sally Can't Dance. It's been well documented how disengaged from the music Lou was during the recording sessions, but I think it benefits a few of the songs. Ironically, it's especially helpful on Billy, an ode to a childhood friend whose experience in Vietnam scarred him. Lou's emotional distance gives the impression that he has been scarred as well, which gives the song that extra pathos to make it moving.”

“An atmosphere of decadence pervades the work. Sure, the attitude is cheap, nasty and cynical but it works in the context and Lou uses his best singing voice here for a change. The arrangements are fine and the music is very accessible overall.”