Transformer

Le Dude (July 25, 2008)

Like Berlin, an uneven set of songs, being lifted up by Bowie & Ronson's production. (this time not also put down like Ezrin's pomp). Compared to fairly consistent forgotten albums that were under-produced but very strong (eg Legendary Hearts), the song quality is somewhat like this:

brilliant to very good stuff:
Perfect Day (Reed at his melodic best; a *really* impressive song)
Satellite of Love (again, who said Reed couldn't write melodies?)
Walk On The Wild Side (another classic)
Andy's Chest (good, but an old VU-song so no wonder)
Vicious (classic riff, but I've heard better)

interesting novelties:
Goodnight Ladies
NY Telephone

utter filler:
Hangin' 'Round (he wrote this in 3 minutes I'm sure)
Make up (self-parody on the album that invents the original)
Wagon Wheel (wtf?)
I'm So Free (abysmal filler - wtf?!!)

And he knew, as the filler is evenly distributed across the record. on Legendary Hearts, even on Growing Up In Public, I find less filler. It's a great album as a whole, but as a writer, it may contain sparks of brilliance but it's not his most consistent set.