'Ecstasy' not high enough for Reed

Now into his fourth decade as a recording artist, Lou Reed has traversed many different musical styles, from the alternating dirge-like instrumental chaos and bittersweet melodies of the pioneering Velvet Underground to the sparse glam-rock of his early solo work on to more sophisticated pop-rock.

Reed's latest release, "Ecstasy," can be seen as a summation of his entire career.

Thematically, Reed has often been obsessed with the transformative power of sin, deviance, addiction and love, and "Ecstasy" tenuously attempts to unify its divergent musical styles with these themes.

For Reed, a former junkie, ecstacy is not merely a feeling of joyous bliss but an often elusive and exalted plateau that can only be reached through pain and suffering.

"They call you ecstasy/Nothing ever sticks to you," intones Reed on the seductive title track.
 

In the epic "Like a Possum," we follow a sex obsessed drug addict, who punctuates his depraved narrative with the refrain "calm as an angel,"  through squalid, nocturnal New York streets. Ecstasy is not reached through drug-induced highs or orgies but instead becomes a tattoo for the self-obsessed hedonist's ability to survive his own depravity.

However, Reed strains to maintain this thematic link throughout "Ecstasy."

Many of the songs come from the perspective of a jaded cynic who's disappointed by love. Whether Reed's relationship with performance artist Laurie Anderson is coming unglued or he's reflecting on his break with former wife Sylvia, Reed does not come across as inspired but caustically vengeful.

Musically, his poisonous lyrics are balanced by languid, lilting melodies that give many of the tracks an air of melancholy. For Reed, even anger and bitterness give rise to plaintive music. In "Baton Rouge," for example, dueling acoustic guitar and cello moodily evoke the reminiscence of a jilted lover.

"Ecstasy" does contain some fairly straightforward American rock songs, the most inspired of which is the blues-rock of "Paranoia Key of E," which features crisp, choppy lead guitar, a chorus of horns and Reed's typically skewed phrasing and sing-speak voice.

Assisted by longtime backers Mike Rathke on guitar, Fernando Saunders on bass and Tony "Thunder" Smith on drums, Reed's music is most engaging when it deviates stylistically. On the title track, Caribbean percussion, Spanish guitar and a morose cello create an aura of intoxicating melancholy and it's by far the disc's most compelling song.

Unfolding in wave after wave of amplified feedback, thunderous drum rolls and ringing percussion, the 18 minute "Like a Possum" evokes some of the Velvet Underground's more harrowing dirges.  The song, like the subject matter it depicts, retains all the compelling and neurotic attraction of a bad addiction.

"Like a Possum" reveals that Reed has come full circle since "The Velvet Underground and Nico," possibly one of the darkest and most influential rock albums ever made.

Unfortunately, there is not enough of this bold experimentation on "Ecstasy," and one hopes, that even as he approaches his sixties, Reed can once again find the spark that has illuminated his most impressive recordings.