2. Lou Reed – Berlin
It’s unlike any of his other albums. The production on Berlin doesn’t really reflect Lou Reed’s personality, I don’t think – I’m sure he likes being very simple and raw, and you get the impression he just wants to play his songs in the studio and leave again. It’s a very strong production in that sense, because the producers clearly thought ‘Let’s do something more than that with this’. That’s what I find so striking; for me, it just shows you what you can do with production, which is to take something that could be quite ordinary – although I don’t think any of those songs are ordinary, actually – and turn it into something more. I don’t think [producer] Bob Ezrin took an easy option. It’s just genius, the way it’s put together. It’s so dark and depressing, and the combination of all that makes it very powerful.
