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Transformer

by

Lou Reed

 
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Transformer
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Avg: 4.5 (372 ratings)

Reed's provocative glam-rock breakthrough and perhaps his most enduring statement

  • We Say...

    Review by Barry Walters

    After the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed's solo career could have gone in several directions. Communal strength and Andy Warhol's patronage had allowed the group to explore the darkest impulses ever recorded as music — would Reed alone be so intrepid? His self-titled debut was a good start, but hooking up with David Bowie as his under-bearing producer and creative stimulant made Transformer a bigger, bolder and more enduring statement. Together, they explored transgressive lifestyles with a light, occasionally campy, musical touch and the strongest concentration of memorable melodies Reed has ever assembled on one disc. Made in the first flush of the gay liberation movement, Transformer is a masterpiece of inclusiveness, glossing over explicit homoeroticism in favor of lines like "we're coming out...of our closets...out on the streets" ("Make Up"), the feyness of "Vicious" ("you hit me with a flower") and the stylish back cover photos, which could have come from a Roxy Music record. For his centerpiece, Reed depicts gender-blurring superstars of the Warhol stable in the subliminally decadent hit single, "Walk on the Wild Side." But there's more here than just pushing the limits of conventional sensibility: the unironic sentimentality of "Perfect Day" and "Satellite of Love" underscore the humanity at the core of Reed's provocation.

  • They Say...

    Review by Mark Deming, All Music Guide

    David Bowie has never been shy about acknowledging his influences, and since the boho decadence and sexual ambiguity of the Velvet Underground's music had a major impact on Bowie's work, it was only fitting that as Ziggy Stardust mania was reaching its peak, Bowie would offer Lou Reed some much needed help with his career, which was stuck in neutral after his first solo album came and went. Musically, Reed's work didn't have too much in common with the sonic bombast of the glam scene, but at least it was a place where his eccentricities could find a comfortable home, and on Transformer Bowie and his right-hand man, Mick Ronson, crafted a new sound for Reed that was better fitting (and more commercially astute) than the ambivalent tone of his first solo album. Ronson adds some guitar raunch to "Vicious" and "Hangin' Round" that's a lot flashier than what Reed cranked out with the Velvets, but still honors Lou's strengths in guitar-driven hard rock, while the imaginative arrangements Ronson cooked up for "Perfect Day," "Walk on the Wild Side," and "Goodnight Ladies" blend pop polish with musical thinking just as distinctive as Reed's lyrical conceits. And while Reed occasionally overplays his hand in writing stuff he figured the glam kids wanted ("Make Up" and "I'm So Free" being the most obvious examples), "Perfect Day," "Walk on the Wild Side," and "New York Telephone Conversation" proved he could still write about the demimonde with both perception and respect. The sound and style of Transformer would in many ways define Reed's career in the 1970s, and while it led him into a style that proved to be a dead end, you can't deny that Bowie and Ronson gave their hero a new lease on life -- and a solid album in the bargain. [This edition adds the acoustic demo versions of "Hangin' 'Round" and "Perfect Day."]

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