Songs For Drella (studio album) by Lou Reed & John Cale

From Crumpet 03/21/2018 17:54

Songs for Drella is a musical retelling of the life of Andy Warhol as told by two of the great musicians whose careers he launched. Every song feels unique, and every one brings something to the table, my only complaint would be that Lou Reed sings the vast majority of the songs, John Cale only singing a third of them, but that’s only a problem if, like me, your more of a John Cale fan. You really feel the love these two had for old Andy, but they don’t act as if it was all good times, the album really does portray the life of someone who they (Reed particularly) loved and hated in equal mesure at different times in their lives.

The best tracks here are most of the tracks on which Cale provides the vocal (“Style It Takes”, “Forever Changed” and the spoken word story “The Dream” particularly) and Reed’s brilliant “Slip Away”, “I Believe” and the beautiful, haunting “Hello It’s Me”, which may be my favourite song Lou Reed has sang since the Velvet Underground.

From Sandrof1969 02/18/2018 17:19

Il secondo sodalizio artistico tra Lou Reed e John Cale, ventitrè anni dopo il primo. A ben guardare è più un disco dei Velvet Underground questo "Songs for Drella" che non il terzo omonimo dei Velvet stessi o soprattutto "Loaded"; questo proprio perché, per me, ciò che fa la differenza tra un disco dei Velvet ed uno solista di Lou Reed è John Cale. Sia come sia questo omaggio funebre all'amico scomparso ( Andy Warhol ) è sentito, sincero, crudo, non retorico e soprattutto non triste. In una parola: riuscito. Dopo di questo le strade dei due torneranno a separarsi, per sempre.

This album was written by Reed with Cale as an homage to Andy Warhol (= "Drella") right after his death. It describes Warhol's life in songs. Remember Warhol was the initiator of the Velvet Underground project that launched Reed's and Cale's careers. The album is full of emotion. Great lyrics. Of course, this is a dark album. But to me it's reed at his best.

A good album but let down by Lou Reed's talking vocals. Why can't he sing like he used to do? Apart from that, very good.