If the only Lou Reed song you know, or even the only song from this album you know, is "Walk On The Wild Side," you're sadly not a music snob. Though that track is undeniably a classic, Reed's sophomore solo effort is an all-around masterpiece. In the Velvet Underground, he contributed the dramatic pop side of the songwriting (in contrast to the harrowing darkness of John Cale's songs), and that voice comes through even stronger here. It's the sound of early 1970s New York: songs about transvestites, casual love, drugs, but all with a less-than-melancholy undertone, even reaching heights of joy on some songs. Plus, this was the peak of Reed's musico-homoerotic relationship with David Bowie (before Bowie dropped Reed like a cheap trick in favor of Iggy Pop), and Bowie's sideman Mark Ronson shreds some killer guitar.
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