Lou Reed – THE BELLS
You could write a
book about this album and not even get through half of it. But let’s just
mention a few points that would at least in some
way explain why this was the best album of 1979.
1. If there comes a
moment in your life when you just want to stay in your room for months on end
and listen to one album ad fucking nauseam, it has to be The Bells. It’s intoxicating. It’s brilliant. It has a mostly
instrumental song called “Disco Mystic”.
2. You have to laugh
the first time you hear Reed’s vocals on “With You”. That moment is truly
priceless.
3. “City Lights” is
better than “Perfect Day”.
4. In a way, The Bells is an even bigger ‘fuck you’
than Metal Machine Music. But it’s an
intelligent ‘fuck you’. Musical. Even the tasteful noise of “The Bells” at some
point dissolves into a mournful anthem of great beauty.
5. The Bells was the best answer to punk being well and truly dead.
