Don’t you love when you discover some old classic record for the first time? It’s not new to the world, but it is new to you, and that’s what matters.
Disc 1417 is…. The Blue Mask
Artist: Lou Reed
Year of Release: 1982
What’s up with the Cover? As my wife noted when I showed her this cover, “that’s the t-shirt all the cool kids had in high school.” I wish I had this awesome t-shirt in high school, but I was busy sporting my Iron Maiden and Dio baseball shirts back then. There’s more than one way to be cool, kids.
How I Came To Know It: I was reading an article called “Top 80 albums of the Eighties” on Paste Magazine and “The Blue Mask” came in at #77. I don’t put much stock in how other people rank things, so the low rating didn’t put me off and I checked it out. After I knew I liked it I stalked the CD racks at my local record stores until a copy finally came in. This finally happened a couple weeks back.
How It Stacks Up: The only other Lou Reed album I have is a double-disc compilation anthology, so that doesn’t count. I expect “The Blue Mask” would rank extremely high out of all of Lou Reed’s albums, however.
Ratings: 5 stars
While it is fun to discover an album almost 40 years after its release, when the album is as good as “The Blue Mask” it is also bittersweet – all those years without this record in my life. And those cool alternative kids wearing Lou’s face to high school every day without it ever occurring to me I should check it out. Ah well, I’m here now.
“The Blue Mask” is a dark flower of a record, that opens to reveal the poet’s soul that lives within Lou Reed. It is raw and courageous but also so simple as to feel almost childlike. Lou speaks like a man with nothing to hide.
“Speaks” is the right word here, since the album is half-sung, half-spoken, with Reed channeling the spirits of sixties beatnik poets. He muses on all manner of topics, from his attraction to women, his struggles with alcohol, anxiety and the crippling doubt of an idealist seeking meaning in a world full of random tragedy and uncertainty. If that sounds like heavy shit, it is, but don’t worry – the journey is remarkably cathartic.
To pull this sort of performance off you require two things, immaculate timing, and great words and “The Blue Mask” has both. Reed’s delivery is deadpan on the surface, but immediately underneath there is a barely controlled turmoil of angst. This stuff will make you feel the feels.
Reed’s words are exceptional, and it is fitting that the opening track, “My House” is an homage to his early mentor and teacher, poet Delmore Schwartz. In the song Reed and his wife summon Schwartz’s spirit with a Ouija board. It doesn’t feel strange at all, a testament to the openness Reed approaches the subject. Whatever Delmore taught obviously stuck and then some and in that way and his spirit is present in the song, regardless of whether it’s in the Ouija board.
On “Underneath the Bottle” Reed delves into alcohol abuse with a brutal frankness, using basic imagery to capture the visceral excesses:
“Seven days make a week, on two of them I sleep
I can't remember what the heck I was doing
I got bruise on my leg from I can't remember when
I fell down some stairs
I was lyin' underneath the bottle”
The bottle here is a weight, holding Reed down, huge and menacing in a way the casual drinker will never know. The bruise is a metaphor for how the bottle abuses him as much as he it. Also, a reminder he fell down the damned stairs. It is dark but brilliant.
Musically, Reed has always eschewed complex melodic structures for basic tunes that nevertheless give weight to a story. On “The Gun” a menacing and restless bass line carries the tune with lots of low notes, and empty space for someone to do wrong with a 9mm in their hands. On “Waves of Fear” there is a powerful energy, even as Reed explores doubt and panic. The song has a strange empowering quality all the same, a “mosh the pain away” feeling that makes you feel better even as it wraps itself around old-fashioned primal fear.
Fortunately, Lou doesn’t leave us twisting. The final track of the album, “Heavenly Arms” is a romantic hymn. Reed calls for his wife Sylvia to come to his rescue. He’s shared all his doubts and now, like his listeners, he needs a hug. “Heavenly Arms” provides just that, reaching out to tell you it is going to be alright, and that the journey through the record was not only worth taking, but worth taking again and again.
Best tracks: all tracks
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