Artist: Lou Reed Album: The Raven Released: 2003 Source: sire Genre: Album rock Format: eac.ape.422mb
Review:
Quote
Edgar
Allan Poe was a man who usually looked on the dark side of life, had
more than a few less-than-healthy romantic and sexual obsessions, was
known to dabble in dangerous drugs, and was fascinated with the
possibilities of the English language, so it's no wonder why Lou Reed
regards Poe as a kindred spirit. In his liner notes to the album The
Raven, Reed touches on the parallels between their work when he writes,
"I have reread and rewritten Poe to ask the same questions again. Who
am I? Why am I drawn to do what I should not?...Why do we love what we
cannot have? Why do we have a passion for exactly the wrong thing?"
Reed's obsession with Poe's work found a creative outlet when visionary
theatrical director Robert Wilson commissioned Reed to adapt Poe's
works to music for a production called POE-Try, and The Raven collects
the material Reed wrote for this project, as well as a number of
dramatic interpretations of Poe's work, featuring performances by
Willem Dafoe, Steve Buscemi, Elizabeth Ashley, Amanda Plummer, and
others. The limited-edition two-disc version of The Raven gives a
nearly equal balance to words and music; while the single-disc edition
is dominated by Reed's songs, the double-disc set features a much
greater number of spoken-word pieces, most of which have been filtered
through Reed's imagination, with a more intense focus on sex, drugs,
and conflict as a result. While the condensed version of The Raven
sounds like one of the oddest and most audacious rock albums of recent
memory, the complete edition feels more like a lengthy performance
piece (albeit a rather unusual one), and while it lacks something in
the way of a central narrative, the focus on the letter as well as the
spirit of Poe's work seems a great deal clearer here. The pitch of the
acting is sometimes a bit sharp (especially Dafoe, who seems to be
projecting to the last row of the balcony), but the con brio
performances certainly suit the tenor of the material and Poe's writing
style. Musically, The Raven is all over the map, leaping from low-key
acoustic pieces to full-bore, window-rattling rock & roll, with a
number of stops along the way. Reed also touches more than casually on
his own past as well, with new recordings of "The Bed" and "Perfect
Day" added to the sequence, and for a man not known for his ability to
collaborate well, The Raven is jam-packed with guest artists, including
David Bowie, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, Kate and Anna McGarrigle,
Ornette Coleman, and Laurie Anderson, all of whom are used to their
best advantage. The mix of ingredients on The Raven is heady, and the
result is more than a little bizarre, but there's no mistaking the fact
that Reed's heart and soul are in this music; even the most oddball
moments bleed with passion and commitment, whether he's handing the
vocal mic over to Buscemi for a faux-lounge number, conjuring up brutal
guitar distortion while his band wails behind him, or confronting his
fears and desires with just a piano to guide him. Truth to tell, Reed
hasn't sounded this committed and engaged on record since Magic and
Loss over a decade before; The Raven reaches for more than it can
grasp, especially in its two-hours-plus expanded edition, and is dotted
with experiments that don't work and ideas that don't connect with
their surroundings. But the good stuff is strong enough that anyone who
cares about Lou Reed's body of work, or Edgar Allan Poe's literary
legacy, ought to give it a careful listen.
Track List: 1 Overture Reed 1:05 2 Edgar Allan Poe Reed 3:20 3 Call on Me Reed 2:07 4 The Valley of Unrest Reed 2:26 5 A Thousand Departed Friends Reed 4:58 6 Change Reed 2:18 7 The Bed Reed 3:32 8 Perfect Day Reed 3:27 9 The Raven Reed 6:30 10 Balloon Reed 1:01 11 Broadway Song Reed 3:12 12 Blind Rage Reed 3:25 13 Burning Embers Reed 3:22 14 Vanishing Act Reed 5:23 15 Guilty Reed 4:54 16 I Wanna Know (The Pit and the Pendulum) Reed 6:58 17 Science of the Mind Reed 1:36 18 Hop Frog Reed 1:46 19 Tripitena's Speech Reed 2:19 20 Who Am I? (Tripitena's Song) Reed 4:31 21 Guardian Angel Reed 6:51
Code
Log:
Code: EAC extraction logfile from 16. May 2006, 20:23 for CD Lou Reed / The Raven
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Peak level 98.9 % Range quality 100.0 % CRC C23AF971 Copy OK
