Lou Reed - Berlin (1973)

I'm of two minds on what I want to do next. On the one hand I've developed a pretty strong opinion of Lou Reed, mostly informed by others and partly based on having heard one of "his" albums. With that in mind I almost feel as though I should give Lou Reed and his ardent followers the best chance at proving this music is as good as they all claim it is. That would lead me to review the albums in chronological order, which would give me a chance to settle in and evolve along Lou Reed's musical path. That would mean the next album I should hear is The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat.

The Divine Comedy - Casanova (1996)

Given the name of this band, the title of the album, and the cover photo, I get the feeling I'm in for some pretentious Warhol-esque bullshit on the level of The Velvet Underground. The only saving grace is the year the album was released. 1996 wasn't exactly the height of pretentiousness unless you were a grunge band writing songs about teen suicide. So I'm hoping Casanova leans more in the direction of say Rufus Wainwright when it comes to high art. That's assuming The Divine Comedy is a high-art type of act and not just some crappy grunge band. I honestly have no clue what this is going to be.

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

So I saw this article on Buzzfeed... Lou Reed Thought The Beatles “Were Garbage”. The subheadline read "I mean, they were just painfully stupid and pretentious." Now I'm certainly not a huge fan of The Beatles. On some level I appreciate anyone who's willing to  take a shot across the bow of the unassailable Beatles Fanship. But Lou Reed? Calling someone else pretentious? Whoa...