The Best Lou Reed Solo Album Ever

My call on this impossible task is Lou's 1989 New York lp. I was lucky enough to see the tour, owned the original and just replaced it with a CD copy this week.

It burns even hotter now, with two decades come and gone: Dirty Boulevard, Romeo and Juliet, and Busload of Faith crack, sizzle and pop, both lyrically and musically, like a downed electrical wire on the road in a hurricane. Rob Wasserman's six string upright electric bass and Reed's relentless guitar work create a rock and roll machine in overdrive from the Bowery straight up to Spanish Harlem.

An essential.