Opinz

The Worst Albums of All Time: Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music (1975)

When it comes to music, we here at Opinz are sincerely interested in the good, the bad and the very, very ugly. With this interest in mind, we are undertaking a quest to examine the seedy underbelly of music, to dig to the bottom of the barrel and take a look at those albums that are widely regarded as the worst of the worst. Every week, we take a look at a candidate and determine whether or not they truly deserve their reputation as a musical disaster. Enjoy.

I’ve been doing this for several weeks now and I’ve so far chosen to ignore one particular album that has managed to make it onto many lists of the worst albums of all time. That album is of course Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. Up until now I’ve ignored it, admittedly because it’s much easier to extract LOLs from 50 minutes of Kevin Federline rapping then 65 minutes of ear-raping guitar feedback. But there’s another reason why I’ve ignored it, something I’ve suspected but have confirmed now that I’ve actually heard the whole thing: it’s far from the worst album of all time. In fact, it’s not even bad.

Metal Machine Music was recorded in Reed’s apartment, where he supposedly set up two guitars and merely recorded feedback sped up and slowed down in various ways. The album was released in 1975, between two fairly mellow and well-received rock records, making it even more of an oddity in his catalog. Upon it’s release, it was met with predictable confusion. It was lambasted by critics and legend has it that thousands of fans returned their copies and asked for their money back.

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