The history of unlikely combinations is a lengthy and celebrated one for those with unusual tastes (peanut butter and cucumber, chocolate ice cream with lemon syrup on top and pizza with pepperoni, italian sausage and green olives are personal favorites), but few more bizarre and potentially disastrous musical combinations spring to mind than Lou Reed collaborating with Metallica. Seriously – the possibility of the premier auteur of such dry-eyed emotionally distant ballads as “Perfect Day,” “Walk On The Wild Side” and “Sex With Your Parents” finding a common artistic middle ground with the Napster-hating band who found fame with albums like Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets and the self-titled Black Album sounds like a disaster just waiting to happen but, according to recent news, it won't be waiting long. Slated for release in North America on November 1, Lulu – Lou Reed's collaborative effort with Metallica is scheduled for release through Warner Brothers Records. "Why is this surprising?" probes Lou Reed, as only he can. "An odd collaboration would be Metallica and Cher. That would be odd. Us – that's an obvious collaboration.”
As fearless musical pioneers of different generations, the combination of Lou Reed and Metallica was always going to deliver something startlingly different and exciting, on visceral and cerebral levels. They've achieved that resonantly on Lulu, a set of extended songs inspired by German expressionist Frank Wedekind's early twentieth century plays Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box (much admired by Freud). The plays, originally published in 1904 and set in Germany, Paris and London in the 1890s, whirl between the points of view of Lulu, an inverted-Eve-like cipher-mirror of desire and abuse, and the people who fall desperately in love with her.
Then she meets Jack The Ripper and the rationale behind the collaboration between Reed and Metallica on the project snaps into perfect focus. This album will bring new meaning to the words Metal Machine Music.
Reed had sketched out songs for director-choreographer Robert Wilson's theatrical production of the Lulu plays – hugely controversial in their day and barely less so a hundred years on – in Berlin. "He asked if we were game," says Lars Ulrich, "and we've been forever touched and changed by the experience." Adds James Hetfield, "We thought: what can we do, what we can add to the potency of this, to take it to another level, make it heavy, make it rock?"
"This is perfect," says Reed. "The best thing I ever did, with the best guys I could possibly find on the planet. I wouldn't change a hair on its head."
Artist:
www.loureedmetallica.com/
