I enjoyed Tom Scharpling’s song-by-song review of the Lou Reed / Metallica double-CD (that’s a thing?), Lulu. Tom gives Lou Reed a whole bunch of credit that I’d never give him. So he starts with this premise that of course Lou Reed and Metallica know how “insane” this collaboration is. But I don’t know. I mean that premise only makes sense when you give Lou Reed that credit (and indeed give Metallica credit) for being self-aware. I’m not so sure that’s the case. I’m not saying they’re not. I’m just saying I can envision a scenario where all parties involved think completely unironically this is a really great idea.

But anyway, I haven’t heard it (and won’t) so I can’t comment on the music but I love Tom’s attitude going into the project:

What I’m going to do is listen to a song a day and review it. And I will do this without judgment because I have a soft spot for crazy records like this and I’m not looking to crap on things just because it’s easy to do. I’ll always side with the people who make things over the people who sit around goofing on things without ever putting their necks on the line, no matter how awful the art is. I’ve made fun of records or movies or books that I didn’t care about either way at different points throughout my life and I inevitably regretted it – being nasty is a device that severely unfunny people utilize to pretend they’re funny too, and if you’ve got Actual Talent in this life you don’t have to go down that road.