Lou Reed

Imagine Springsteen adopting Reed's NY intellectual thug/perv persona while the E Street Band do their thing behind him. A pretty good stab at the mainstream even if Reed proved he could do the same sort of thing much better (and with more personality) on Coney Island Baby.

"I Believe in Love" is a fairly hilarious send-up of the let's-get-down game Lou is playing right now. I mean, could Mitch Ryder or Ian Hunter "believe in the Iron Cross" one line and "good-time music" a couple later? (Christ, I hope they don't take this as a challenge.) But the joke doesn't quite hold up, and sometimes it gets lost altogether, at which point Reed sounds like he's imitating his worst enemy, himself. Not the disgrace his followers believe, but not the bad-time music he's capable of. (Grade - B-)