View basket “Berlin” has been added to your basket. Berlin (Hybrid Stereo SACD) Lou Reed SKU: CMFSA2277 Barcode: 196588772122 38.00 £38.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Mobile Fidelity Released Date: 30th August 2024 Buying Format: SACD Out of stock Back Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 2,000 Numbered Copies: Mobile Fidelity’s Hybrid SACD Presents the Singer-Songwriter’s 1973 Album in Audiophile Quality An Intense Journey into Toxic Relationships Balanced with Gorgeous Arrangements and Dark Humour: Lou Reed’s Conceptual Berlin Features A-List Cast and Bob Ezrin Production. Like the records he made with his first band, Berlin finds Lou Reed decades ahead of the times. Though dismissed upon its original release in 1973, the former Velvet Underground member’s third solo effort ultimately landed on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and remains one of his most lauded works. Addressing mature issues in stark fashion, the rock opera blends autobiographical reality, poetic license, and ambitious arrangements to tell the story of a couple’s toxic relationship and its fallout. Produced by Bob Ezrin and featuring an array of ace musicians, Berlin is an emotionally harrowing and sonically eclectic journey into the many of the worst tendencies of the human condition. Reed’s distinctive voice — central to every track — sounds direct, immediate, centered. The realism and clarity of his tone make it appear as if he’s entered the room. You can trace his breath control, reserved coolness, and commanding phrasing. And sense the implied violence, delusion, and sorrow in the questions and statements he issues in the persona of the protagonist Jim — as well as the empathy, fatigue, confusion, and frustration he projects in his guise as Caroline. Mobile Fidelity’s reissue also puts into a new, improved light the brilliant contributions of the standout session players. Steve Winwood (Hammond organ), Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone), Randy Brecker (trumpet), and Procol Harum drummer B.J. Wilson play key roles. The core band assisting Reed and Ezrin on a majority of Berlin — Alice Cooper guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, drum maven Aynsley Dunbar, Cream bassist Jack Bruce — turn in a collective performance for the ages. None more so than Bruce, whose bass lines resonate on this LP with a roundedness, fatness, tautness, and control that give songs added depth and foundation. Ezrin’s restrained piano, full of body and decay, performs a similar function. Expanding on the gritty themes he explored with the Velvet Underground, and arranging them into a conceptual tale, Reed transforms Berlin into a candid report of what was happening behind closed doors everywhere. Deemed by the Chicago Tribune as “a spare, understated song cycle of nearly suicidal intensity about a crumbling marriage,” it deals head-on with heavyweight topics such as domestic abuse, drug addiction, mental illness, custodial rights, prostitution, and depression. Reed’s purple narratives detail issues that would attract mainstream attention many years later — and which continue to spur vital conversations. Akin to a classic film noir or hardboiled novel, Berlin skirts any attempt to varnish its rough interiors. Functioning as both a contrast and counterweight, the record’s beautiful, symphonic-leaning exteriors somehow both heighten and lessen the severity of the vignettes. The theatrical swells of woodwinds, strings, and brass feature the same streaks of black humour that inform Reed’s writing. That edginess and eccentricity, and Reed’s investment in the album’s three characters and situations, function as magnets that draw us in even when the sadness, meanness, and darkness prompt us to look away. Save for the opening romance of the title track and false hope of the damning (and downright nasty) “Sad Song,” Berlin largely trades in doom and depression. A record that starts off with a muted celebration and fond recollection ends with motherless children, slashed-wrists suicide, and a callous partner who feels no remorse for his brutal actions but professes gratitude for what becomes an unmitigated disaster. “Life is meant to be more than this,” Reed sings in combination protest and resignation on the ironically gorgeous “Caroline Says II.” Before the next song finishes — a bleak chronicle of behaviours and decisions relayed with intentional misogyny, hatred, and shaming, and whose subdued tenor gets fractured by the sounds of wailing children crying for their mother — that life has gotten far worse. Minutes later, when Reed and company shape the swirling fever dream called “The Bed,” that life is snuffed out. Oh, oh, what a feeling, indeed. Artist Lou Reed Genre Rock And Pop Label Mobile Fidelity Buying Options SACD Format 10LP + DVD , SACD Condition New Country USA Track Listings Berlin Lady Day Men of Good Fortune Caroline Says I How Do You Think It Feels Oh, Jim Caroline Says II The Kids The Bed Sad Song Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Lou Reed View Product Quick View Lou Reed Berlin Rock And Pop | Mobile Fidelity | 180g, 1LP Released 30th August 2024 £46.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Lou Reed Berlin £46.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Mobile Fidelity SKU: LMF1555 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 30th August 2024 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View Lou Reed Hudson River Wind Meditations Rock And Pop | Light In The Attic | 2LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 12th January 2024 £46.00 - £49.00 Select options Lou Reed Hudson River Wind Meditations £46.00 - £49.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Light In The Attic Formats: 2LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 12th January 2024 Read More Select options View Product Quick View Lou Reed Transformer (Light In The Attic Exclusive) Rock And Pop | Light In The Attic | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 24th March 2023 £38.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Lou Reed Transformer (Light In The Attic Exclusive) £38.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Light In The Attic SKU: SONY19658756911 Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 24th March 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Graham's picks View Product Quick View Lou Reed Words & Music, May 1965 Rock And Pop | Light In The Attic | 1LP, Box Set, Coloured Vinyl Released 26th August 2022 £28.00 - £95.00 Select options Lou Reed Words & Music, May 1965 £28.00 - £95.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Light In The Attic Formats: 1LP, Box Set, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 26th August 2022 Read More Select options View Product Quick View Lou Reed Coney Island Baby Rock And Pop | RCA | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 22nd January 2021 £23.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Lou Reed Coney Island Baby £23.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: RCA SKU: 19439797181 Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 22nd January 2021 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Lou Reed New York (Deluxe Edition) Rock And Pop | Rhino | 2LP, Includes CD, Includes DVD Released 25th September 2020 £63.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Lou Reed New York (Deluxe Edition) £63.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Rhino SKU: 0603497847556 Formats: 2LP, Includes CD, Includes DVD Released Date: 25th September 2020 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Lou Reed Transformer Rock And Pop | Speakers Corner | 180g, 1LP Released 30th October 2004 £35.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Lou Reed Transformer £35.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Speakers Corner SKU: LSP4807 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 30th October 2004 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View Lou Reed Banging On My Drum Rock And Pop | Keyhole | 3LP Released 16th March 2015 £27.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Lou Reed Banging On My Drum £27.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Keyhole SKU: KH3LP9025 Formats: 3LP Released Date: 16th March 2015 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Lou Reed Waltzing Matilda Rock And Pop | Easy Action | 2LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released 13th November 2018 £21.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Lou Reed Waltzing Matilda £21.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Easy Action SKU: EARS099LP Formats: 2LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 13th November 2018 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Lou Reed Rock n Roll Animal Rock And Pop | Sony Legacy | 1LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released 25th April 2012 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Lou Reed Rock n Roll Animal £22.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Sony Legacy SKU: SONLP95802 Formats: 1LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 25th April 2012 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders See more from Lou Reed Start 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View Product Quick View Lou Reed Transformer Rock And Pop | Speakers Corner | 180g, 1LP Released 30th October 2004 £35.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Lou Reed Transformer £35.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Speakers Corner SKU: LSP4807 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 30th October 2004 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket
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