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1.  Brandenburg Gate
2.  The View
3.  Pumping Blood
4.  Mistress Dread
5.  Iced Honey
6.  Cheat On Me
7.  Frustration
8.  Little Dog
9.  Dragon
10.  Junior Dad

Total playing time:  1:27:05

Release Date: November 1, 2011
Label: Warner Brother / WEA

Lou Reed & Metallica - Lulu

Reviewer: Chris

October 19, 2011

Well, I will admit I expect very little from Metallica these days, but considering I go back nearly 30-years with the band at this point I almost felt obligated to give this venture with the legendary Lou Reed an honest shot. Lulu is the result of two iconic names coming together and creating something unique and…quite good!

To be honest, this type of music is more up Metallica’s alley these days. What we have here on Lulu is a blueprint of Mr. Reed’s lyrics in tribute to German expressionist Frank Wedekind’s plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, which for the day were very controversial. They focus on an abused dancer and her trials and tribulations concerning love, sex, hate and self-deprecation. Originally this brainchild was Mr. Reed’s vision of a Berlin theatrical production, but after jamming with Metallica and wanting to further the muse for both of them we get this album. I must admit I’m thoroughly enjoying Metallica’s musical brilliance here under Mr Reed’s poetic musings, which is reminiscent of the American Prayer album put out for Jim Morrison, though this has music much more suited to the tempo of the verbiage and the tone of Mr. Reed’s voice makes no mistake how severely the topic is meant to be taken; it’s the equivalent of watching a free-form poetry reading while having the resonating music of a solid, recent rock album rambling about in your head. Mr. Reed’s delivery isn’t as brazen or even croaky as, say, Tom Waits but produces a comforting tone from an older gentleman that is reciting and rehashing volatilities at a family gathering while Metallica offers a concise soundtrack in perfect tandem with the setting and theme for each track. “Mistress Dread” is a look back in time at the heaviness that Metallica still possesses in its creative arsenal, and under Mr. Reed’s vocal begging for the dancer’s degradation it’s sickeningly precise and wholly disturbing. He creates wonderfully rich and fluid visuals, especially found in “Dragon”, which is as angry and brutal as it gets with typical Standard English.

As a man that covets good poetic verse structure, I find Lulu to be a very fine representative of this type of undertaking. The music should always compliment the words in every possible way, and that’s not an easy task at all when dealing with poetry with musical backdrops, especially conceptual pieces. This particular collective of somber design is pieced together with abstract efficiency and showcases both artists’ abilities in creating the elongated centerpiece that manages to lift and crash your psyche at all the proper, albeit impromptu moments. “Cheat on Me” is a disturbing meandering into the dark and lonely void of self-loathing and produces the edgy visual of a woman being run through time and again, both externally and internally. Her plight becomes personal as you journey with her through a near Marquis de Sade experience in her personal existence, minus the overt sexual torture found in de Sade’s Justine or 120 Days in Sodom. When the bluesy Metallica rhythm section begins creeping in, it’s absolute wondrous time-management in terms of the wave of discontent and self-effacement. Lars Ulrich’s drumming in this song is particularly essential to the verbal eulogy Mr. Reed offers next to James Hetfield’s accompaniment calling for answers to the grand cheating question.

To be completely accurate, this entire record is a brilliant work of rock ‘n’ roll art that presents a Velvet Underground artistic sensibility to the so-called ‘ugly’, yet cerebral world of heavy metal, an uncomfortable marriage on paper but one that ultimately works. Mr. Reed’s tempestuous lyrical slant throughout this piece could only be complimented by a band like Metallica, a band that is today, at best, a fringe metal act with a storied and important history to its lineage. The music they provide simply wouldn’t have been done to any higher degree by any other band. “Frustration” lends credence to the musical poetry tag when Mr. Reed starts posturing in the grandest fashion and Hetfield, Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo start improvising with expert tribute for this forlorn figure in the author’s tortured vision. This makes it difficult to call out any one or two tracks that are widely encapsulating because it’s the equivalent of going through Milton’s Paradise Lost or Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus and trying to pull out one line or ten that are memorable. Granted, some lines stick in the craw through such writings and are always repeat-worthy, but it’s the overall passionate delving of one whole as opposed to sum parts that provides the vision to even recall a line or three along the way. This is certainly a conceptual piece that deserves to be heard with clear thoughts and in one sitting. One must put aside all preconceived notions concerning Metallica and their metal/non-metal issues of recent years; the band performs exceptionally in this forum and Mr. Reed should be well satisfied at the musical sobriety the band created for him with his writings.

This pairing was most enviable in every way, and this coming from a guy that nearly had to go to the hospital with how hard I hit my head off the table when hearing the news of this collaboration. I am, once more, pleasantly surprised and happily mistaken. For those with a poetic interest and a love and knowledge of Lou Reed’s style this album will be a great experience.                

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