Here are some customer reviews of
Berlin
: Yet another example of the masses rejecting anything that doesn't sugarcoat things. This album is not cold, it's objective. Lou Reed presents the story, he doesn't judge it. The crushing lines in caroline says 2 "Caroline says as she gets up from the floor,You can hit me all you want to, but I dont love you anymore" illustrates the characters of this play perfectly,detached and hopeless. Many don't like believing these people exist. But reed has never been afraid to confront his listeners with such true depictions of the human condition. This album is also more approprietly produced than the critically acclaimed "transformer". "BERLIN" Belong behind only "blood on the tracks" as the best album of the 70's.
This is the most beautiful and compelling of Lou Reeds solo records, it always makes me cry, the sheer sadness contained in songs like "the bed" and "the kids" you really get drawn into the characters that are drawn in this little rock n roll play... the cover is just gorgeous too... the tired sad title track is just simple magic, you are in a smokey cafe in Berlin, you can feel all the people there, here the music playing as two doomed lovers meet and spiral into tragedy...
Music sometimes has the power to move us, and none moreso than Reed's "Berlin." This is some of the most harrowing music ever recorded. If you can listen without crying to "The Kids," with it's refrain "They're taking her children away" while terrified children scream "Mommy! Mommy!" in the background, well then you're lacking all human compassion. It's not a party album. You wouldn't play it to cheer up after a hard day. But in terms of using the power of music to sweep you into another person's reality, and put you face-to-face with some of the darker aspects of a dark, misbegotten life, well, there's nothing stronger. A long overdue reissue, and one of my favorite albums of all time.
I bought BERLIN after reading Victor Bockris's brutal biography of Reed, TRANSFORMER. It was hailed as a "masterpiece" throughout the book, and having been a big fan of Reed and VU for years, AND since it had just been re-issued on CD, I snatched it up. I had no idea what a surprise I was in for. Having heard many of the VU versions of these songs, and based on my other Reed discs, I was completely stunned by the theatrical-German-tavern orchestration, and the blatant violence (particularly misogyny) in the lyrics. None of this turned me off of the album, as I was determined to see it as a testament of a certain state of mind, which was discussed at length in TRANSFORMER. And according to the book the recording of this album was a catastrophe, what with Reed's increasing dependence on speed, and his emotional state. Knowing this, it is amazing that the album turned out as well as it did. But like so many other "masterpieces" it wasn't hailed as such until much, much later, when it could be listened to within its own context, and not just as the follow-up to the album TRANSFORMER. This leads me to my calling it an "accidental masterpiece," as obviously Reed's vocals aren't up to par, there's nary a Reed-guitar crunch in sight, and much of the orchestration is close to being absurdly overwrought. However, my reason for giving it five stars is that it IS a perfect testament to Reed's state of mind/being at that particular time, flaws and all. Not many albums achieve this. One last thing, I wish people would stop with the: "I like the VU version of this-or-that song better." I happen to like Reed's later takes on those songs, and in this case think that the BERLIN version of "Sad Song" is much more powerful than the original.
 Lou Reed, a songwriter of enormous talent, must have realized how talented he was. That was his mistake. Concept albums, usually, are dreadful experiences, and this is nothing more than a slightly above average concept album. Produced by the guy who eventually produced rocks most overrated yawner "The Wall" by Pink Floyd, the grit and streetmuck feeling of The Velvet Underground is gone and replaced with Mantovani dribble. As far as the songs, "The Kids" is a harrowing song, and at times on "Berlin," the melodrama works. But now, due to the advance in reissue technology, the original versions of these songs by the Velvet Underground are superior ("Oh Jim" [on "Peel Slowly and See"] as "Oh Gin" and "Sad Song"], and make the "Berlin" versions sound extremely pretentious. Lou Reed fans must own this record, because it is his most elaborate recording, and reportedly, one of his favorite of his own albums. It will probably bore to tears just about everybody else. "Berlin" is well represented on the Lou Reed box-set, "Between Thought and Expression," which is highly recommended.
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