Lou Reed – The Raven

Lou's homage to Edgar Allan Poe, was an epic, huge undertaking. Possibly Lou's last great record.
It confused listeners on its initial release, but is slowly becoming appreciated as a masterpiece. There is Tremendous variation on this very long record Jazz, spoken word, avant-garde, Cocktail etc, its all very engaging and it will keep your attention and interest for the playing time of well over 70 minutes.
For me this single disc version works better as an album as its better sequenced and more cohesive than the two disc version, The 2 disc version has more spoken word and poetry etc and is also great, and you will want to check it out at some stage as a more extended and complex listen, but hey all in good time, this is the version that you need for the moment, its very playable and if you ever do get your mitts on the 2 disc version, I still think that after you have satisfied your curiosity, you will reach for the one disc version much more often.
Lou also made a totally great record with a nod to Edgar Allan Poe, called The Bells, you might want to check that out also, however on this record, The Raven Lou really went to town with his heartfelt tribute of the Gothic master and his love for the project just pulls you in.
Its not just Lou's ion, it was an ensemble cast of very talented artists who brought this ambitious project to life, making it feel almost like an atmospheric dark movie, but always assessable and never too dense.
At the moment this record that is kinda underappreciated, but surely some day will be regarded as great art, and will sit alongside other of gloomy masterpieces like Berlin as a totally essential record.
Do not hesitate with this one as it will greatly enhance your collection, its not as critically acclaimed as Berlin but I think it will be given time.

The Cool Vaults Grain Of Salt.

Sounds good and pressed on quality vinyl. I bought this at my local record store not knowing it was a spoken word, but it is very interesting!

I love this record. I feel most people always seem to be looking for Lou Reed's Velvet Underground persona, and the thing is, after Velvet Underground Lou Reed was so much more. He tried in his own way to do different things, and I feel most of those releases are always judged right next to the VU catalogue which just doesn't have anything to do with them. This is a great record, great music, spoken work, songs are good, there is a big ion in every line delivered. I love that Lou Reed fell in love with poetry during his last records, even in his record with Metallica, which should be discussed separately. This is a great record to put on after work for me, instead of TV or a movie, I listen to this with the lyrics opened on Genius, and it's a great read and listen.

I am a fan of this album so I picked up the record store day release of it which also happens to be the first vinyl release of the album. It's good, it sounds good. My only problem is mine for some reason had two copies of disc 3 and no disc two... So no Vanishing Act or Broadway Song for me :P

Have yet to give it a spin, but considering that its the first vinyl pressing, and limited to 5000 (a relatively low number compared to some albums pressed at 60000 copies for example), AND the last solo work Lou Reed did without a specific band backing him, I say its worth grabbing. I paid too much for mine 60 some-odd dollars. But its well packaged and will likely go up in value. I’ll try and to post back about sound quality after giving it a spin.

Would love an LP release of this one day, shame it will probably never happen!