★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
After reading about this album many, many years ago, I had a vision of it grown to mythical status as it remained unfound by me. The darkest Lou Reed album, full of terrors and the cruel sexual underbelly of a secret world. Well, I finally listened to it, and it really isn't all that dark. Yes, there's a song abut a dead friend, but it's a touching and celebratory one, not horribly bleak. The title track is a litany of violent sex, but Reed has written about that before, and this has the ring of a confession rather than eroticism. There's a song about JFK being shot, and some ragged songs about DTs and night terrors and alcoholism, but also a love song and some humor. I mean: "Ooohhh-wheee / Son of a B." And: "Average looks, average taste / Average height, an average waist / Average in everything I do / My temperature is ninety-eight point two." Favorite tracks: "Underneath the Bottle," "Waves of Fear," "The Day John Kennedy Died."
