Lulu by Lou Reed and Metallica – Album Review

by Matt Callard

Fantasy collaboration is a great game – try it. Lady Gaga and Queens of the Stone Age. Lily Allen and Sigur Ros. Liam Gallagher and Fleet Foxes. It’s great how all these unwritten songs, good or bad, can start to play in your head.

And whoever came up with this one is some sort of evil genius. Man, this is a beast of an album. Reed, inspired, but utterly depraved lyrically. Metallica’s musical controls set for oblivion. Huge and frightening and occasionally ugly. Long, pummelling, riff-laden epics salted with Reed’s unique New York bitterness, bite and bile.

“Utterly depraved lyrically”

Then, incredibly, on closer ‘Junior Dad’ they take a breath. In comes a harmonium. A languid, melodic bass. And what unfolds is a breathtaking, beautiful and totally redemptive 19-minutes – the sun somehow winning over the darkest clouds.

Truly astonishing, eventually.
7/10