Vinyl Hour!

New York - Sire Records, 1989

"You can't depend on the goodly hearted
The goodly hearted made lamp-shades and soap
You can't depend on the sacrament
No Father, no Holy Ghost"
—from Busload of Faith, lyrics by Lou Reed

Lou Reed’s New York concept album plays like a novel, overflowing with characters, words, social commentary, and life. Reed famously said that it should be heard “in one hour,” almost like a stage piece. It’s one of those few late-’80s rock albums that feels more like literature than glossy production.

Reed strips everything down to language, rhythm, and bite, keeping most songs to just two guitars, bass, and drums to capture a reportage-like immediacy. It’s also his most overtly political album since the early ‘70s, firing at televangelists, urban decay, racism, the AIDS crisis, and institutional rot.

I remember the first time I listened, getting lost in the beautiful flow of language and rhythm. Reed writes in long, tumbling lines—half street slang, half poetry—that ride the groove. This blend of street reportage with poetic swing makes New York feel vividly alive.

My favourite tracks include the hit single, Dirty Blvd., which distills social rage into street-level fable; Romeo Had Juliette, the propulsive opener with New York poetry set to a tough backbeat; and Endless Cycle, a mournful sketch of violence passed down through families. I just love that gritty, guitar-based storytelling backed by minimalist riffs.

New York is widely seen as the start of Reed’s late-career renaissance, and both commercially and critically, it became his biggest success of his post-’70s output. The album re-established him as a serious, contemporary writer, not merely a legacy artist with a cult following.

What other albums have a deep literary feel and play like a novel?

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