Lou Reed has been making a lot of noise about rock & roll lately, but his new album is less a collection of rock & roll songs than a series of meditations which comprise the philosophy of Lou Reed. This is not to say the music isn't rock & roll. But the spirit is not rock & roll. Rock & roll is aggressive; Rock and Roll Heart is reflective….

Rock and Roll Heart is a replay of every snarl he ever put onto wax. On its 12 songs he contemplates a variety of typical Lou Reed subjects—love, hate, good times, bad times, fame, hipness—in a manner that's deceptively perfunctory. He seems to have reduced his work to a series of skeletal phrases which he fleshes out with music that's lean and raw. The key phrases are all refrains…. He has scooped out their depth and given us nothing but surface. (p. 94)

Reed...