Transformer
by Lou Reed

Transformer by Lou Reed
Year: 1972
Release date: 1972-11-08
Overall rank: 144th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
83/100 (from 1,559 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 1972 (6th)
Award Top 50 albums of of the 1970s (36th)
Award Top 200 albums of all time (144th)

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Lou Reed bestography

Transformer is ranked as the best album by Lou Reed.

Lou Reed album bestography « Higher ranked
-
This album (144th)
Transformer
Lower ranked (596th) »
Berlin

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Transformer track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 84 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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#
Track
Rating/Comments
3.
Track pick (920 - 572 votes)
Average Rating: 92 (572 votes)Comments: View 7
5.
Track pick (910 - 559 votes)
Average Rating: 91 (559 votes)Comments: View 6
7.
Track pick (890 - 408 votes)
Average Rating: 89 (408 votes)Comments: View 6

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Transformer rankings

Transformer rankings summary
Overall rank: 144th | 1970s rank: 36th | 1972 rank: 6th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 2 hours ago).

Transformer collection

Transformer ratings

Average Rating: 
83/100 (from 1,559 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 1,559 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
55/100
 !
07/19/2026 15:02 xhitmanx  Ratings distribution  1,52277/100
 
95/100
 !
06/21/2026 12:13 Neil_71  Ratings distribution  13177/100
 
85/100
 !
06/14/2026 23:03 classicjoe  Ratings distribution  50778/100
 
45/100
 !
06/12/2026 16:00 wizardalien  Ratings distribution  87048/100
 
80/100
 !
06/03/2026 02:27 jtrizzle35  Ratings distribution  67480/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 83.3/100, a mean average of 82.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 83.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.2.


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Transformer comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 94 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
45/100
From 06/12/2026 16:01 | #314899
Nice little album with Walk On The Wild Side, Vicious and Satellite being the highlights, but not enough special tracks to be just outside the top 100 albums of all time in my opinion.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 04/18/2026 18:27 | #313996
Very good, if not totally my thing.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 01/16/2026 18:25 | #312664
I've not heard much by Lou Reed but this album confirms the hype that I've heard about him. There is at least 5 songs on here that could have been hit singles, and the rest of the tracks are not bad either. I love the poetical lyrics that come from the wild side of life. There is not much that is conservative or safe on this album. Lou Reed is person who is seems to stretch the boundaries of what can be sung about, and I really enjoyed it. Also really enjoyed the mixture of rock guitar with beautiful piano pieces, and brass instruments in places. For me this is a classic.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 10/02/2025 16:57 | #311170
Sneaky good album, def tapers off in the second half but great production and deep lyrics carry the album. Thou the tubas on Make Up are a little to cutesy for me. Favorites would be Vicious, Hangin' Round, and Walk on the Wild Side
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 07/22/2025 23:51 | #310252
This has always been a bit of a slow burner for me. Couple of filler tracks but mainly an album of top notch tunes. Definitely stronger in the front half. 'Perfect Day' being one of the best songs to come out of 1972
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Rating:  
85/100
From 04/05/2023 16:00 | #295800
There is some filler on this record but when Lou Reed gets it right it is simply phenomenal on this release. The three classics that are Perfect Day, Walk On The Wild Side and Satellite Of Love are outstanding with all of them still sounding just as fresh and exciting today. The production across the whole of the album is fantastic and this makes it easy to keep revisiting it countless times. Lou Reed's song writing is genius and it is tough to listen to this album and not dig deeper into some of his songs and explore their meanings and stories. His vocal is one of my favourites in music history and this is possibly the best he has sounded on any of his albums. However, there is those weaker tracks which are mediocre or good and for most people I can see why it might make this record feel like a bit of a drag especially nearer the end. Despite this, I love these deep cuts as I just enjoy Reed in this style of music as I think it suits him brilliantly. Overall, this record is a lot fun that also has a large amount of quality backing it up with one of the most important people in music history leading the line demonstrating how versatile and incredible he is.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 12/19/2022 22:53 | #292077
I've heard people say really positive things about this record and Lou too, but I didn't get into it with any expectations. I like that the album has really vivid storytelling and also some of the lines/melodies remind me of newer songs, which shows what influence he had. My favourite tracks have to be Vicious, Perfect Day, Make Up, Satellite of Love and New York Telephone Conversation. My least favourite tracks are probably Andy's Chest and unfortunately the last two tracks that make the albums finish not so interesting as I thought it would be considering how cool the middle part was. It didn't blew me away apart from the songs mentioned, but I got to admit it sounds loose, it's funny and really light on the ears, has good stories also. I'd give it a 7,5 / 10, but it gave me a different experience, because I don't listen to his type of music a lot.
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Rating:  
85/100
From 09/19/2022 19:27 | #289805
Lou Reed veio forte em sua carreira solo já desbravando e criando o glam rock. Genial.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 08/31/2022 03:47 | #289151
Solid album
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 06/07/2022 13:40 | #286071
Massive Lou Reed album which introduced him to many people with the big hit "Walk on the Wild Side". Lots of variety here and Perfect Day is also a classic.
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