Lou Reed

Some people wait for things that never come." sang Lou Reed in "All through the Night" on
last year's The Bells. "And some people dream of things that never been done... /Why can't
anybody shed just one tear for things that don't happen?" In another number from that fine
LP. "Families" (about a way ward son speaking to his parents across a gulf of reciprocal
heartbreak). Reed had to pay twofold for some of those "things that don't happe... More >

This unabashedly literate album isn't pretentious on paper--Lou's just an educated guy for whom middlebrow names like Poe and Vidal and Shakespeare and Escher mix as naturally into the conversation as dictionary words like "harridan" and "lucid" and "ore" and "encroachment." But musically he's trying too hard with no place to go--projects the opener from midway down the esophagus as if Street Hassle leads to Street-Legal, then doesn't even stick with that. Mostly these are intelligent songs that misfire slightly. The two gems are two of the simplest both verbally and vocally. In one Lou's father gives him sh*t while his mother dies. In the other he proposes. (Grade: B)