Lou Reed – New York (2LP) – Clear Vinyl

Album Info Hide Show Artist: Lou Reed Album: New York Released: Worldwide, 2021 Tracklist: A1 Romeo Had Juliette 3:10 A2 Halloween Parade 3:33 A3 Dirty Blvd. 3:29 A4 Endless Cycle 4:03 B1 There Is No Time 3:46 B2 Last Great American Whale 3:42 B3 Beginning Of A Great Adventure 4:57 C1 Busload Of Faith 4:50 C2 Sick Of You 3:26 C3 Hold On 3:25 C4 Good Evening Mr. Waldheim 4:37 D1 Xmas In February 2:57 D2 Strawman 5:54 D3 Dime Store Mystery 5:04 Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Lou Reeds New York lands like a dispatch from the sidewalk, a full city block pressed onto wax. Released in January 1989 on Sire, it is the late career record where his words sharpened into street reportage and the band kept to the bones. Reed and guitarist Mike Rathke lock into rangy, unsentimental lines, Rob Wassermans bass moves with a conversational thrum, and Fred Maher keeps time like a heartbeat you notice only when it speeds up. The production is famously lean, just two guitars, bass, and drums, and Reed even asked listeners to take it in one sitting, like a book or a film. That request still makes sense. This is a proper front to back listen, especially on New York vinyl where the sequencing breathes. The opening one two is a mission statement. Romeo Had Juliette sketches a Lower East Side romance that sounds like it was written in a diner after last call, cigarette ash on the formica. Then Halloween Parade turns the Villages costumed joy into elegy, a roll call of absent friends in the shadow of the AIDS crisis. Reeds voice barely rises, which makes it hit harder. Dirty Blvd. follows with a stomping three chord hook and a story that never blinks. It went to number one on Billboards Modern Rock chart, and you can hear why. He turns a single riff into a whole neighborhood, kids on fire escapes, dreams colliding with the welfare hotel. A lot of writers call this a political album, which is true, but it is political in the way a city is, crowded and contradictory. Hold On name checks headlines you might have clipped from the Post, Sick of You sneers with dark humor, and Strawman calls out hypocrites in language so plain it feels like a shove. There Is No Time plays like a rallying cry, yet Reed avoids sloganeering. He writes in details, not slogans. Even Last Great American Whale, with its fable like setup, finds room for street names and real places. You do not need to have lived through the late 80s in Manhattan to feel the charge, though if you did, the album can feel like a time capsule cracking open. What keeps it from turning into a sermon is the band. Rathke leaves space between phrases, Wasserman slides around the pocket, and Maher resists every urge to overplay. The restraint gives Dime Store Mystery, the closing tribute to Andy Warhol, a kind of candlelight glow. Reeds guitar turns almost devotional, then pulls back. The performance feels earned after 55 minutes of tight jawed realism. It is one of his most moving closers. Critics met the record like a homecoming. Rolling Stone put it among the years essential releases, Robert Christgau praised its focus, and it landed near the top of the Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll for 1989. That rush of acclaim never felt like hype. Lou had been digging toward this voice since the Velvets, and here he found a way to weld reportage to rock and roll swing without softening either. If you are crate digging, New York vinyl is the way to hear it. The edges of the guitars sit just right on LP, and the low end has the kind of body you want for Wassermans lines. Early Sire pressings show up in decent shape, and the 2020 Rhino deluxe reissue added a clean remaster along with a full live performance and the concert film The New York Album, which captures Reed playing the record straight through onstage. That tour was a statement in itself. He believed in these songs as a set, and audiences did too. A quick shopping aside, since people ask at the counter. If you want Lou Reed vinyl, start with this and Transformer, then branch to The Blue Mask and Street Hassle. You can buy Lou Reed records online easily enough, but this album is one I like to pull from a bin, check the spine, and carry home. Lou Reed albums on vinyl have a way of turning casual fans into people who start following matrix numbers. If you are in a Melbourne record store or browsing vinyl records Australia late at night, keep an eye out for a clean copy with a sturdy jacket. This is one you will spin front to back. New York prizes clarity, and that clarity has aged well. No vintage filter, no nostalgia fog. Just a great writer staring down his city, telling you what he sees, then trusting the band to make it move. Put it on, sit with it, and let the needle run the whole side. Lou asked for that much, and he was right. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review