Transformer (Expanded Edition) - Lou Reed

Rating: 6.5/10
Sound Quality: 320kb/s
Format: Mp3
Record Label: RCA (Original), BMG (Expanded Edition)
Year Released: 1972 (Original), 2002 (Expanded Edition)
Album Covers: Included
Pass: radiodada
Links: rapidshare

About the Album
Transformer is Lou Reed's breakthrough second solo album, released in December 1972. Unlike its predecessor Lou Reed, eight songs of which were leftovers from his Velvet Underground days, this album contains mainly new material. However, there are still a few songs that date from his VU days--Velvet Underground-recorded versions of "Andy's Chest" and "Satellite of Love" surfaced in 1985 and 1995, respectively; and "New York Telephone Conversation" and "I'm So Free" are known to have been played during the Velvets' run at Max's Kansas City in the summer of 1970.

Transformer was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, who had been strongly influenced by Reed's work with the Velvet Underground. The album features some of Reed's best-known songs such as "Walk on the Wild Side", "Perfect Day" and "Satellite of Love", and made him an international star in his own right.

"Andy's Chest" had been recorded in 1969 for The Velvet Underground's "lost fourth album" (see VU and Another View) and "Satellite of Love" had been demoed for the band's 1970 album Loaded, but neither had been used. For Transformer, the poppy up-tempo feel of these songs was slowed down to turn them into ballads. Although all songs on the album were credited to Reed, it has long been rumoured that "Wagon Wheel" is actually a David Bowie composition. Although there are no known performances of "Vicious" by the Velvet Underground, the song apparently dates from Reed's time in the band and its association with Andy Warhol. According to Reed, Warhol told Reed he should write a song about someone vicious. Reed inquired what he meant by that, and Warhol replied, "Oh, you know, vicious like I hit you with a flower."

The first single from the album, "Walk on the Wild Side", became an international success, despite its adult subject matter (it was edited in some countries and banned in others) and it is now generally regarded as Reed's signature tune. "Satellite of Love" was issued as the second single in February 1973. In 2002, a 30th anniversary edition of the album was released; in addition to demos of "Hangin' Round" and "Perfect Day", it includes a hidden track featuring an advert for the album.

The cover art was from a Mick Rock photograph.

In 1997, Transformer was named the 44th greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. Transformer is also ranked number 55 on NME 's list of "Greatest Albums of All Time." In 2003, the album was ranked number 194 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It is also on Q Magazine's list of "100 Greatest Albums Ever".

About Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed (born March 2, 1942) is an American rock musician best known as the guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground as well as a successful solo artist whose career has spanned several decades. The band gained little mainstream attention during their career, but became one of the most influential of their era. As the Velvet Underground's main songwriter, Reed analyzed subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined so openly in rock and roll, including a variety of sexual topics and drug culture and use. As a guitarist, he was a pioneer of many guitar effects including distortion, high volume feedback, and nonstandard tunings.

Reed began a long and eclectic solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", though for more than a decade he seemed to wilfully evade the mainstream commercial success its chart status offered him. One of rock's most volatile personalities, Reed's work as a solo artist has frustrated critics wishing for a return of The Velvet Underground. The most notable example is 1975's infamous double LP of recorded feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which Reed later commented: "No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive." By the late 1980s, however, he had garnered recognition as an elder statesman of rock.