Lou Reed: The Blue Mask Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This pressing was remastered under Lou Reed's personal supervision and comes with a 22-inch-square fold-out poster of the cover. It's the album where he teamed with guitarist Robert Quine, and the two guitars, one in each speaker, are thrilling.

This edition

Remastered
Fold-out cover poster
Pressed in the EU
Stereo mix

About the album

Lou Reed turned 40 around the time The Blue Mask came out, back on RCA and newly married, and the album faces both the calm and the storm of that: settling down, love and home on one hand, violence and fear on the other. It's one of his most direct, unguarded records.

The band is a lean trio: Robert Quine on guitar, Fernando Saunders on bass and Doane Perry on drums, with Reed's guitar on the right channel and Quine's on the left. There were no rehearsals, and most songs were done in one or two takes. "My House" is a tender tribute to his old teacher Delmore Schwartz, "Women" is an unexpectedly sweet thank-you, the title track explodes with feedback, "Average Guy" is wry and plain-spoken, and "Heavenly Arms" closes on Saunders' falsetto refrain. Every vocal was overdubbed except on "The Heroine," which Reed sang live with the band.

Quine called it the record he was proudest of, and it set the pattern for Reed's best 80s work. Saunders said the sessions made him glad he hadn't joined his uncle's insurance company, and the insurance trade's loss is very much ours.

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