Since the Grammys for this year have already been given away, the race for next year is already finished in one category: Lou Reed will win hands down for ugliest album packaging. But as long as an album has his name on it, not even this blue mess will stop us from listening. It's been 4 years since his last real album, the intimate and sad Magic And Loss, and six years since the fabulous New York. But Lou Reed hasn't been lazy; there was a Velvet Underground reunion (showing that all other band members look twice as old as him), a book, soundtracks, and contributions to other people's albums and samplers.
Lou Reed was always a master of simplicity, of creating a maximal effect with minimal means. This hasn't changed on this new album; there's just Reed's voice and guitars, plus bass and drums and the production is slim and clean. There are a few tracks in the classic Lou Reed style, like the catchy first single "Hooky Wooky" or "NYC Man". Laurie Anderson contributes some background vocals on the slow, simple, but beautiful "Hang On To Your Emotions". Highlights are "The Proposition", where Reed's great guitar takes over the melody line, and the vocals define the rhythm, or the epic "Riptide", which starts out with noisy, Hendrix style, guitars.
One track that you will most certainly not hear on US radio is the controversial "Sex With Your Parents (Motherfucker)". It's a sarcastic song about Republican politicians ("something more disgusting than Robert Dole").
Talking about Lou Reed's music without mentioning his lyrics is impossible, as he is a poet as much as a musician. Many of the songs deal with emotions. "Trade In" talks about realizing that your life is messed up, and wanting to be another person ("how could I think that it was true, a child that is raised by an idiot, and that idiot then becomes you"). There are very deep and beautiful sentences, like "first came fire, then came light, then came feeling, then came sight" from the dark and intense "Finish Line". Others just capture real life and make you think, such as "you're so civilized it hurts". Tracks like "Adventurer" can be viewed as poems with music just as well as songs with lyrics.
If this album has one problem, it's that there are hardly songs that will make great singles and could ignite huge sales. These songs take time and attention. But Lou Reed just has more class than most others, and Set The Twilight Reeling is a clear proof of that. You can't miss it at your record store: just remember, it's the ugly blue one that you need.
