The Lou in question is
Lou Reed, the erstwhile leader of
the Velvet Underground who died in 2013.
Nils Lofgren and
Reed crossed paths in the late '70s, when producer
Bob Ezrin -- who helmed
Reed's
Berlin in 1973 and was working with
Lofgren on a new record -- introduced the pair. Hitting it off,
Lofgren and
Reed wrote a clutch of songs which appeared on their 1979 albums
Nils and
The Bells, but these six songs weren't all that the duo wrote together. After
Reed's death,
Lofgren excavated the songs that weren't recorded at the time, adding six new tunes and a version of "City Lights" -- originally from
The Bells -- for good measure. Tracking live in his home studio with drummer
Andy Newmark and bassist
Kevin McCormick,
Lofgren achieves a lean, sinewy sound that gives the tight group plenty of room to roam, and they occasionally do, stretching out the title track to seven minutes and "Cut Him Up" to six. Such a concentration on a muscular band dynamic naturally moves
Blue with Lou closer to
Lofgren's camp than
Reed's, but the latter's DNA still shines through in both the rhymes and rhythms.
Lofgren's originals may not carry the same swagger, but when they're surrounded by these
Reed co-writes, they're given a slight lift: the whole affair simultaneously feels like an affectionate tribute to a departed friend and a resuscitation of
Lofgren's gut-level rock & roll. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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