release date: Apr. 1979
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,92]
producer: Lou Reed
label: Arista Records - nationality: USA
9th studio album by newly deseased Lou Reed (Oct. 27, 2013) follows the release of the double live album Live: Take No Prisoners (Nov. 1978). The mid-70s found Lou Reed moving away from glam rock, now making music primarily in a adult rock and pop / rock style with a certain art rock profile. With The Bells he expands his stylistic universe by incorporating disco and funk. I never really liked this album that much and find it more of one of his misses of another transition period. Alledgedly, Reed himself has spoken fondly about it and actually has picked this as a personal favourite. Well, could it be that he (says he) likes it only because critics have seen it as a minor work of his? That would be SO much in the spirit of Lou Reed. Anyway, on most albums you'll see Lou as songwriter of all his songs but for this, most songs are composed in a collaboration with either Nils Lofgren (tracks #1, #4, and #6), Michael Fonfara (tracks #2 and #3), Marty Fogel (tracks #2 and #9), Ellard Boles (tracks #2 and #8), or Don Cherry (track #7). At worst, everything sounds a wee bit like an imitation of Bruce Springsteen but it's nevertheless an actual studio album by the great Lou Reed. It's not intentionally, nor in the light of this album that I choose to remember Lou Reed but I guess it also represents his many faces. He couldn't be framed in, and as an artist, he surely never stood grounded in the same spot but always kept renewing himself - searching for that new ingredient to color his sound. RIP Lewis Allan Reed.
Not recommended.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
