LULU Metallica Lou Reed collaboration

I honestly had pretty big expectations for this. When you think about it, the collaboration, before listening to the above track, sounds logical. On the one hand you have Lou Reed's signature style of macabre, noir storytelling along with the murky atmosphere that seems to run through his work. Then you have Metallica who have shown many flavours to their music from thrash, hard rock to country and some elements of grunge. To me, Lulu promised to bring out an unusual side for both acts. So you could have Reed's cryptic approach to music while Metallica could provide a hard, slow grinding undercurrent to the whole thing. To an extent, The View makes some attempt to do this, but it comes off more as a first take. It's actually too raw when you think about it. I don't consider it a failure, but it's well below the hopes I had for it (so far).

As for the rest of the album, I had it playing in the background while doing some work the other day. Personally, i'm warming to it. Unlike The View, musically there's a fair bit of variation on the album including stringed and acoustic instruments. So it's not just the Lou-metal-James-Lou-metal-James type format we got on The View. That said, I hear a lot of Lou on the album (vocally), James is there but more as a sidekick. There's a song on there called Iced Honey which is clearly my favourite so far. I really like the song, even Lou's vocal works on it.


Pumping blood: musically excellent, really rich with atmosphere, whaling guitars, solid drumming but again, but vocal really strains it. The shout out from Lou to James was really annoying, “come on James”. There’s a part where he goes into full on rant/spoken word more (yes, more than The View) where he goes “Jack, Jack, Jack, I beseech you and call out your name, Jack”, Abraham Simpson Style.

Mistress Dread: full on, brutal attack, St Anger territory but with a whaling organ in the background. Musically great, but the vocal, as you’d expect, will take some adapting to.

Iced Honey: a Neil Young, hard rocking type song with a little more Hetfield on the vocals. The best on the album, a song I genuinely like. Hetfield’s vocal harkens back to the Load era so I really appreciated that, but they are my favourite Metallica albums. I stress again, not the typical Metallica fan here.

Cheat on me: very repetitive lyrics but the music is good. Heavy, melodic and moody with some strange organ type sound in the background. Great drumming

Frustration: rage against the machine type instrumental. Reed’s vocal actually meets with the tempo and arrangement of the music. It’s still a ranting style but it actually suits the song.

I must say, musically, it's just some of Metallica's best. Lar's drumming has never sounded so clear nor has it flowed so naturally. There's also some really unusual riffs from James and Kirk which suit their style well. I'd love to see some of this type of music make it into the next Metallica record. Meanwhile, the production and other instrumentals make for a really brooding and gothic atmosphere, it sounds great. Truthfully, it's just a matter of getting past Lou's vocal. Sadly, there are actually songs where James doesn't feature vocally at all. But i'm liking the album more than I expected. The View is easily the worst of this album, they chose a very poor song to launch the album with.

So far I like:

- Iced honey

- Cheat on me

- Little dog

Make it stop. I just wish they'd make a decent album.

(I'll admit that I am biased because I grew up listening to 80s Metallica and think pretty much everything since Justice has been a waste of time. So, I am spoiled.)

Honestly, I still can't get into 80s Metallica, i'm just not into thrash. For me, I like everything from "Black" and onwards. I know that's pretty much the antithesis of a typical Metallica fan, but it's just me.

Well, I was probably being a bit harsh.

I listened to a lot of the Black Album back when it came out. And, while I think it was a decent album nowadays when I go to listen to some Metallica I never pull it out. I don't know why, but none of the songs really seemed to grab me. They're not bad, they're just not spectacular.

Load was massively disappointing to me. I remember having waited ages for it to come out and then buying it the second it hit stores. I tore it open and put it in the car CD player on the ay home from the store and thought, "Wait, this is it?"

Reload to me was a great improvement over Load. Still, not my favorite, but there are several songs there that I will listen to still.

St. Anger, in my humble opinion, was the worst Metallica album of all time. I bought it and literally listened to it once and never touched it again. I think I probably still have the CD somewhere, but it's not on my iTunes. It just didn't sound like Metallica to me.

I will admit that I kind of liked Death Magnetic. It's not my favorite, but is probably the best album since the Black Album and may be the best since Justice. It's not quite there, but the edge seemed to be back.

Of course, like I said, I am biased toward having grown up listening to 80s Metallica. So, that's how I see the band. I thought things started to go downhill after Cliff died. Metallica are the reason I learned to play guitar so may years ago. (Ok, I'm old, it was over 20 years ago.) At one point I could play pretty much every song from the first three albums from memory. So, I guess that I just got used to Metallica sounding like that and I haven't evolved with them. Also, I am a crotchety old man now.

I liked most of Metallica's stuff, but am more of an 80s Metallica fan too.

Load was a disappointment for me too... I liked Reload and Death Magnetic. I think I only listened to St Anger once too. I really liked the Black album though. Might be because it was the first one I heard.

Honestly, Megadeth has grown on me over the years and are now one of my favorite bands, along with Metallica. I have seen both bands twice now too. Technically, guitar wise, Megadeth is far superior to Metallica. Song writing wise, Metallica is superior, although that could be argued with their newer stuff.

Megadeth's new album 13 is getting me really excited. Seems like it is going to be their best album since The System Has Failed.

I will be interested to hear 13, as well. I thought The System Has Failed was good and the next two were only so-so. To me, Megadeth albums seem to be hit or miss. I hope 13 is a hit.

I agree with you on that one.

Being a huge Metallica fan, I have to weigh in on this topic.

I have not had the opportunity of listening to Lulu yet. And I will buy it to have with my Metallica collection and I will listen to it, and I will more than likely not like a bunch of it based on the previews I have heard. But, after listening to it a few times, I'm sure I'll find stuff that I dig.

Now, about the debate about Metallica through the years. There is no argument from me, that the absolute height of Metallica's musical epic-ness, was the Master of Puppets/...And Justice For All era. During those years, they really found the definition of their music. However, they didn't want to be placed into a category so they went a different direction with the Black Album and on into the Load years. I have listened to Metallica since I was 7...I'm 31 now. And I can honestly say, there hasn't been an album released that I have "hated". I obviously like some better than others. But, on every album, I have found something that I enjoy. I have friends who to this day, still have not listened to the black album more than once for the simple reason that it's "not the justice album" and to that I say FOOEY! lol Music is music. Just because it says "Metallica" on it doesn't mean it has to sound one certain way for it to be any good. I mean hell, the Ride the Lightning album started off with a Victorian sounding instrument that made ya think, "Is this Metal, or Mozart?"

Point being, judge the music for the music, not the name of the band and the expectations of the music. Now, as far the St. Anger album, I think most peoples problems with it is the drum sound. It sounded like Lars banging metal in a steel mill rather than playing drums. But I found, if you listen to them playing the songs live on the DVD that came with the cd instead of listening to the studio cut, it was way better to listen to. Just a little tip...worked for me to appreciate the actual songs and not the quality of the studio sound. St. Anger, Sweet Amber, and Some Kind of Monster are really really good songs.

And my final thought.....Death Magnetic is by far my favorite Metallica Album...and I used to swear by "Justice". I feel like the Death Magnetic album is thrashy, heavy, melodic, lyrically strong, well written, and more importantly.....mature. I feel like the sound they put out on this album is the most mature they have ever sounded while still being very, very heavy. "All Nightmare Long" is one of the scariest songs I have ever heard, and not to mention, my favorite from the album. "That Was Just Your Life" is thrash at its finest and lyrically great to listen to. "The Day that Never Comes" is a throwback to "One" and fun to listen to. "Suicide and Redemption" brings back the "oh so wonderful" instrumental, a la "To Live is to Die" and the song "My Apocalypse" is by far the most violent song lyrically, with brutal riffs and crazy solos and is exactly what every metal fan wants in a metal song. I basically have equated Death Magnetic to this......

Master of Puppets + ...And Justice For All = Death Magnetic

Just my two cents worth.

I am surprised you didn't mention Broken Beaten and Scarred.

I love that song!!

It was definitely a pleasant surprise when I heard that album.

I wouldn't say it is my favorite, although it is damn close to it.

I like Master and Justice. I will never understand why people are so critical of the Black album.
You said Death Magnetic sounded mature, but I thought Black did too, at the time it came out, because it was so different.

As I said before about LULU. The music is great, especially mistress dread, pumping blood and frustration... it is the singing that gets under my skin.

BTW, Daren Aronofsky is going to direct the video for Iced Honey.... now that should be an interesting video

I got Lulu the other week. It's grown on me, I like it enough to play it about once a week for the next couple of months or so. As i've listened to it, I think i've realised the real issue (beyond the vocals). When you think about it, the album lacks context. Here are two acts coming together to produce an album based on a German play. It's seemingly come from nowhere, so to have such an oblique album to stand on its own gives listeners nothing other than the album itself to judge it by. How could it be better contextualised? This album plays more like a soundtrack. Why not make Lulu into a film and then release the album as its supporting soundtrack? You could have done amazing things with a film set to this music. I'm thinking Tarantino as Director since Lulu seems to be a revenge tale - who better to tell it?

That way, when people listen to the album, they have images in their mind to attach it to rather than the abstract, avant garde nature of what we have now.

Lestat - You're right. Totally overlooked Broken, Beaten, Scarred. That song is very unique. It has a different vibe to it altogether and I totally dig it. I like the lyrics to it as well.

Joel - What an amazing point. I think you're on to something about maybe releasing the album as a supporting soundtrack. Like I said, I've heard bits and pieces of the actual music, but I've read a bunch of interviews about it and that would really make sense to have the music accompany something that people can visualize and get a grasp of, and in turn, maybe help appreciate the music a little better.

havent heared this LULU thing yet wil check it out when i get off work. as for me metallica died when snt anger came out.. loved the parodies with guys banging on pots and pans

im not a hardcore fan and dont have a favorit album onley some favorit songs.. (probobly just the hits)

but seeing them live is really fun seen them 3 times now and they bring a bang to say the least

This would make a great soundtrack.

Maybe if the video with Daren Aronovsky pans out, they might just make a film.

Him as director would definitely be amazing.