In a way I hope that ["Sally Can't Dance"] is the last album that Lou Reed ever makes. There's no longer any way of avoiding the fact that since the demise of the Velvet Underground, Reed's been balancing precariously on the edge of total artistic disintegration.

Discounting "Rock and Roll Animal" … Reed's produced four solo albums, including the one under consideration here.

On those four albums there are maybe half a dozen cuts—and that's an optimistic assessment—that could just possibly be compared to his work with the Velvets. And that's sad, because at his peak Reed was years ahead of almost everyone in terms of intelligence, vision and the exploration of themes which the rest of rock has still to catch up with. This album isn't quite the ultimate disaster I'd anticipated, but it's close enough for me to wish that Lou would take a long...