Word: reed
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...respect, at least, both Lou Reed and Patti Smith represent a single tradition in popular music-that of the talking singer. Both like to patter over a light drum beat or bass line, in the manner of a Jim Morrison. For Smith this practice masquerades as high poetic art; for Reed it seems to be more a product of his declining vocal resources. His last album, Take No Prisoners-a live, double-record set-consisted mostly of Reed chattering with and occasionally insulting his audiences...
Bereft of his old band the Velvet Underground, his "rock and roll animal" stage mask, and now even his voice, credibility is about all Lou Reed can lay claim to today. His recent studio albums have each shed a successive layer of his personality-on Coney Island Baby, he sang "I want to play football for the coach"; on Street Hasslehe sang "I want to be black"; on The Bells, nothing is left but his ashen, wasted face...
...music of The Bells reflects the desolation of that face. Somewhere along the line, Reed seems to have decided that the minimal rock he pioneered with the velvet Underground in the late '60s-basic riffs repeated without elaboration on a rhythm guitar-was bankrupt as a musical form. He broadcast this decision with his rendition of the old Velvet Underground standard "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together" on Street Hassle; he sang it virtually a cappella, with no guitar, no drums, nothing but a fuzzy electronic backup to signal that this was indeed, or had been, rock...
...Reed's replacement for the Velvet Underground sound is a mixture of electronically synthesized guitar and bass, a traditional wind and brass section, and a technique called "stereo binaural sound"-which has something to do with the placement of microphones and leads to a thick, atmospheric recording best listened to with headphones. The sound is unmistakeable and very pleasing, and so far Reed has been able to write songs that take full advantage fo it. On "I Want to Boogie With You," Don Cherry's trumpet and Marty Fogel's sax thicken the soup of a repeated chord sequence...
...REED'S CONFESSIONAL instinct shows up conspicuously in a song called "Families," in which he chants rejection of his family's suburban expectations. In "With You," he sings...