Lou Reed
New Sensations

THE REVIEW

It has already been established that there was a period, roughly corresponding to the mid-'80s, when almost all the great rockers of the previous decade went through an involution and found themselves, in the midst of that chaos of synthesizers and freeze-dried sounds, feeling a bit like fish out of water.

However, in Lou Reed, this did not prevent the artist's genius, even amidst records not exactly up to his best, from occasionally peeking through, hinting that even in albums, let's say, "of craft", the magical touch had not completely disappeared, and they were still well-crafted albums that gave hope that, sooner or later, the masterpiece would arrive. Which it duly did in 1989 with the great album "New York."

Lou Reed's intelligence in this "New Sensations" was in composing songs with good melodic lines, even if not too original, and in compensating for the partial lack of inspiration by dressing the songs with beautiful sounds, focusing in particular on the guitar parts and giving free rein to the great and late Robert Quine (ex-Voidoids) on second guitar, and the fantastic rhythm section with a great Fernando Sauders on bass. As I said, the songs themselves are not exceptional, there is a bit of a lack of a great lead track, but there are at least three or four gems and we'll look at them right away.

"Turn To Me" is a great piece where Lou Reed's guitar takes center stage, precisely in those years starting to develop his typical distorted sound, demonstrating that when Lou decides to rock rock'n'roll he's still one of the best. The title-track benefits from a groove with an almost hypnotic and fascinating progression, with a stratospheric bass that could go on forever, a little gem to rediscover. "Doin' The Things That We Want To" is a track that will be kept in the live setlists for several years to come, still great guitar sounds and a beautiful vocal performance by Lou Reed. Finally, there's "My Friend George", which is dedicated to the same character as the Rod Stewart song "The Killing of Georgie" (probably a pusher), a delightful song with a nice contribution from the rhythm section and splendid guitars prominently featured.

It can be said that these four tracks represent the top of the album, the other tracks are definitely minor pieces in Lou's now vast repertoire, songs that can still be listened to with ease.

Certainly not a masterpiece, but still a good album which, when listened to again today, could be reassessed.