Dr P
Transformer - Lou Reed
I’ve been struggling to put my thoughts down about what I think of Transformer.
I’ve never explored Glam rock more than some scattered Roxy Music and early David Bowie stuff (mostly “The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust”). It’s never been a genre of music I was particularly drawn to.
I have listened to the Velvet Unground and own the Warhol album, but as with Glam, I’ve never been drawn to them either. Or Lou Reed for that matter.
So for the purpose of this review I’m going to comment on Transformer as a stand alone album by a musician I know very little of.
Zooming out, I like this album. It’s fun, has interesting lyrics and backing vocals by a group of ladies called “Thunderthighs”. Some of it reminds me a bit of Zappa (New York Conversation) but mostly I hear Bowie. Not surprising considering he produced the album. The most Bowie sounding song for me is “Satellite of Love”.
I like the production, the track listing and music. But still there’s something missing or perhaps something I don’t appreciate about it. Perhaps it’s the same reason why Glam has never grabbed me. I just can’t put my finger on it despite playing the album over a number of times in this past week.
My standout tracks are:
- Vicious
- Perfect Day
- Walk on the wild side
- Satellite of love
- I’m so free
Rating: 7.5/10
PS
I feel I need to revisit this album in a couple months. May make an amendment to this review.
G
Lou Reed must’ve loved Bob Dylans lyric writing style. Seems pretty clear (except in perfect day which kind of stands on its own in the album). I had to google this and in some of the boxes that were cleared after his death there’s a reel to reel tape of early recordings where he covered bob dylan and sang songs in his style, reedy voice harmonica and all.
For me it’s so far an album of three songs:
Perfect day Wild side Good night ladies
With some joke songs that are good for one listen, and some songs channeling other artists.
Andys chest dylany
Hanging around beatlesy
Satellite of love bowiey
Reading up on the album I was intruiged to hear about his conflict with Susan Boyle, it was non-violent and ended well. She was going to perform his song “perfect day” on Americas Got Talent but got was contacted by Lou Reeds representatives informing her she didn’t have permission. With no time to rehearse anything else she had to cancel the performance. Then she was contacted by Lou Reed personally to let her know he had nothing to do with, it was just a corporate copyright glitch, and not only can she perform the song live and record it, but he would personally produce the music video. Nice.
Tough to rate the album with the songs tangled together. The albums good songs are great songs so on their strength an 8
Combined score: 7.75