Description
After the success of ‘Transformer’, the expectation was that Lou Reed would plow deeper into commercial territory. As usual, Reed delighted in confounding expectations. ‘Berlin’ is a song cycle that uses the decadence of its namesake and some Brecht / Weill-esque orchestrations to tell a story of two psychically damaged people and their doomed relationship. Far from the rock-star poses of ‘Transformer’, ‘Berlin’ is lyrically and musically frank and blunt, the arrangements move from sophisticated, arch orchestration to naked-sounding acoustic sparseness, but the words are uniformly unflinching in their depiction of violence, addiction, and desperation. Not for the faint of heart, ‘Berlin’ is a harrowing journey through the aforementioned tribulations, and one of Reed’s most unusual, demanding, but ultimately rewarding albums.
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