Search - Lou Reed :: Very Best of Lou Reed

Highlights from two decades

Pieter | Johannesburg | 12/16/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

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This compilation, though not comprehensive, is an interesting mix of the well-known and the obscure. It opens with what is probably Reed's most delicate love song, the poignant Perfect Day. His biggest hit, Walk On The Wild Side, follows and then there's the charming Vicious. All the aforementioned tracks are from his highly successful Transformer album.



I Love You Suzanne is a buoyant ditty from one of his lesser-known 1980s albums, but a memorable love song all the same, whilst Caroline Says II and Berlin come from the bleak Berlin album of the early 1970s. I Want To Boogie With You, Last Shot an the humorous I Wanna Be Black are also drawn from more or less obscure albums, although they're all great songs.



Sally Can't Dance and Coney Island Baby are more classics from the 1970s, the first a jerkily rhythmic track and the second a brooding slow song. The album concludes with the melodious Satellite Of Love, a most poetic and moving number.



Although this is a solid collection of great songs, I wouldn't call it his Very best! A Very Best would at least have to include Street Hassle, Dirt, Endless Cycle and Strawman, the last two from the magnificent New York album. But as a showcase of some of his most memorable songs from the 1970s and part of the 1980s, this album serves its purpose well.

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