Lou Reed
Legendary Hearts

THE REVIEW

The "loop" function on a media player will never prove more useful than with this album: recorded in 1983, after the excellent performance of "The Blue Mask," it has the particularity of presenting us with a very clean sound characterized by hypnotic and repetitive refrains (but not boring for this reason), with the exception of the beautiful final ballads "Home of the Brave" and "Rooftop Garden", paced by the great bass lines of Fernando Saunders, in my opinion one of the best interpreters of this essential instrument. 

I could never tire of listening to (looping, indeed) songs like "Pow Wow", the melodious and moving "Bottoming Out", "Turn Out the Light" with its sparse yet tireless bass and drum line resulting in the best track on the album, the boozy but lucidly played "The Last Shot" echoing back to the period of "Growing Up in Public," "Martial Law" paved with powerful electric guitar screams, and the very sweet namesake song that gives this work its title, in some ways disorienting for the most fervent fans of the star, who will find themselves catapulted into the 80s without regretting this too much, as, although the sound influences of that musical period are clearly predominant in this work, the exquisite craftsmanship of the tracks and arrangements will not make anyone regret purchasing such a well-packaged product (I admit buying it initially blindly just for the cover!), where only the disappointing "Don't Talk to Me About Work" will make you press the "skip" button on your trusty stereo.

4 and a half stars.