This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
For a guy who’s written so many great songs — Sweet Jane, Walk On The Wild Side, Heroin, I’m Waiting For The Man, White Light/White Heat, for starters — Lou Reed sure seems to have trouble making great albums.
In the 30 years since The Velvet Underground, he’s produced one undisputed classic (Transformer), a few notorious provocations (Metal Machine Music, Berlin) and dozens of incosistent releases featuring one or two great songs surrounded by half-baked ideas, forgettable ditties and sub-par filler. His 27th album Ecstasy, a strange, black-hearted rumination on love gone sour, is his latest contribution to the slush pile. Leadoff track Paranoia Key of E, with its choppy guitar riff and horny vamp, is one of Reed’s best rockers in a decade. Even some of the downbeat pieces, like the bossa nova jazz of the title track, recall the tenebrous beauty of Street Hassle or Walk On The Wild Side. Then there’s Like A Possum — a virtually unlistenable, 18-minute, free-form blues dirge about how Lou is, well, like a possum. And he wonders why some folks hate him. Bottom line: Ecstasy generates a pretty good buzz at times, but it’s no Heroin.
