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Lou Reed: Magic & Loss

JTC

PFM Villager...
I’ve loved this album since first hearing it around 1991. Dark, sparse, thoughtful and - I think - beautifully judged. Curious if there are any other M&L fans (specifically) amongst us?

Also, given that I love this album so much, maybe there are similarly sparse albums out there by other artists? Any follow-on recommendations?

Ta.
 
I’ve had it since release. Always viewed it as the other more personal side of New York. They work well as a pair.
 
I have and enjoy NY but they are quite distinct in my mind. Oddly enough it’s next up (have both on vinyl and cd, albeit the vinyl is a wee bit crackly now).

Really interested in similar sounding albums from other artists more than other LR suggestions (since I know and have most of his output)…
 
It’s a great album but one I find difficult to listen to. Coincidentally got a mate suffering with cancer at the moment…****ing grim.
 
It’s a great album but one I find difficult to listen to. Coincidentally got a mate suffering with cancer at the moment…****ing grim.
I think that it’s the starkness and directness of how he approached the difficult and awfulness of its impact that somehow appeals. It’s a very unvarnished and honest album, IMHO easily Reed’s best album. But, yeah, it’s a full-frontal take on a tragic and difficult subject, and should be applauded for that. Even if it can be a tough listen for that very reason….
 
I bought it when it was released but never took to it and haven't played it for years. Perhaps it's worth a spin again now. Interestingly I just got round to it when cataloguing my LP's on Discogs and it's not come up with a value yet. Presumably the version I have doesn't have many (any) sales just now.
 
I never found it as strong a collection of songs as New York. The subject matter became stretched and tracks "samey".
 
I bought it when it was released but never took to it and haven't played it for years. Perhaps it's worth a spin again now. Interestingly I just got round to it when cataloguing my LP's on Discogs and it's not come up with a value yet. Presumably the version I have doesn't have many (any) sales just now.

Same here - I loved (and still do) New York (the last 6 songs especially) but never quite got on with this as well, finding it a hard listen. That said I don't think I've played it this century so it's time I did. *The only other later period album of his I have is Mistrial, of which I can't remember a single track, just that I didn't think it was up to much at all.

*edit: forgot about Songs for Drella
 
Lou Reed was always a master storyteller, obviously not Joni level, but not a million miles away in his own way. The thing Magic & Loss brings is a truly personal aspect; his friends were dying. Slowly and painfully. That’s what sets it apart to me, and it’s also why I view it as a companion piece to New York. NY set the scene, M&L brought an epilogue to some degree. By saying this is just how I read it at the time. I’m no great expert on Lou Reed, there are a lot of his solo albums I’ve never heard, some more I don’t rate that highly at all. The only post VU stuff I have is Transformer, Berlin, Metal Machine Music, New York, Magic & Loss. I think this is all I want.
 
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I bought it when it was released but never took to it and haven't played it for years. Perhaps it's worth a spin again now. Interestingly I just got round to it when cataloguing my LP's on Discogs and it's not come up with a value yet. Presumably the version I have doesn't have many (any) sales just now.

Just noticed the matrix numbers on my LP don't match any of those on Discogs. I think it's https://www.discogs.com/release/641646-Lou-Reed-Magic-And-Loss but I have ...-1-Axx / ...-1B2x8
 
Discogs is far from complete. It only contains the stuff people have documented, which is inevitably only a subset of what exists.
 
Lou Reed was always a master storyteller, obviously not Joni level, but not a million miles away in his own way. The thing Magic & Loss brings is a truly personal aspect; his friends were dying. Slowly and painfully. That’s what sets it apart to me, and it’s also why I view it as a companion piece to New York. NY set the scene, M&L brought an epilogue to some degree. By saying this is just how I read it at the time. I’m no great expert on Lou Reed, there are a lot of his solo albums I’ve never heard, some more I don’t rate that highly at all. The only post VU stuff I have is Transformer, Berlin, Metal Machine Music, New York, Magic & Loss. I think this is all I want.
You need Songs For Drella.
 
Bought it years ago when I’d just started to teach. Not an album I put on much as it is a difficult very personal listen. Very good though.
 
For me Drella is strong but a lot of it sounds dashed off (ironically like much of Warhol's work and referenced in the lyrics to the track Work - "it's just work" - well no it's not just work it's art/creativity and you can't just bang it out) ...it was written and recorded quickly and suffered for that. None of the tracks are as good as Dime Store Mystery. Just IMO. And stretching the exclusively Warhol-related material over a (very) long album is too much.
 
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New York has a lightness of touch which pretty much everything Reed did after it conspicuously did not. Magic and Loss exemplifies that for me. The production is leaden as is the tone. I’m sure some people have personal stories which mean they ascribe it with a certain significance for them but personally I thought it was achingly dull; striving far too hard to be an artistic statement and basically not that good.

Songs For Drella is very patchy but at its best easily eclipses anything ion Magic and Loss and, again, has that lightness of touch missing from so much of Reeds later work.
 


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