Lou Reed
Mistrial

THE REVIEW

It's 1986, and Lou Reed's period of creative stagnation continues, and just like in the previous album “New Sensations”, the old Lou “makes do” as he can with simple and catchy compositions, trying to dress them with bright sounds and guitars (all his own, this time) that are both gritty and clear, even if the absence of Robert Quine, the guitarist who had significantly embellished the previous three albums, is felt quite heavily.
The songs are there, perhaps even more than in “New Sensations”, although it should be noted that there are a couple of really awful things, the terrible “The Original Wrapper”, with drum machines and sounds almost like a pinball machine (can you imagine something further from Lou Reed’s musical sensibility?), and “No Money Down”, which was accompanied by a parody video where Lou Reed’s mannequin was torn apart by I can't quite remember what, again with a ridiculous electronic drum and plasticized guitars, aarrgh!
But for the rest, you can safely go along, even if at some points, Lou Reed dresses the songs in an ‘80s sound that doesn’t belong to him (this is certainly the case with the two pieces mentioned above), finding himself a bit out of place.
Good pieces, as I said, there are still some, starting with some simple typically Lou Reed rock, for example “Mama’s Got A Lover” and “I Remember You”, two circular songs, with a guitar riff repeated from start to finish, in short, the typical songs with one or two chords at most, made nonetheless in what I believe is a very intelligent manner.
Among other things worth noting are also a couple of languid and sweet ballads like “Don’t Hurt A Woman” and “Tell It To Your Heart”, surely dedicated to his then wife Sylvia Morales, with a very romantic and passionate interpretation.
Then the invective and harsh criticism of modern society, which will be one of the main protagonists of the fantastic “New York” three years later, begins to emerge. Here there’s a piece, “Video Violence”, which is a violent throw against the television garbage that was already reigning at that time (even here in Italy, of course!) and which, however, willing or not, conditioned our lives. A track that will prove to be a forerunner of what Lou Reed will see a few years later.
In conclusion, another album that, far from being a masterpiece, nonetheless did not overshadow the enormous capabilities and potential of a Lou Reed, perhaps a bit of a “rocker in slippers” (as someone defined him at that time), but still far from being retired (also quoting the critics of the time here).
What can you do if the critics of the '80s preferred to praise Duran Duran and Sigue Sigue Sputnik?