After the harrowing triumph of
Street Hassle
,
Lou Reed
's
The Bells
sounded like a bit of a step back; it returned
Reed
to the more listener-friendly, keyboard-dominated sound of
Rock and Roll Heart
, the lyrics lacked the caustic self-loathing of songs like
"Dirt"
or
"I Wanna Be Black,"
and it even featured a four-and-a-half-minute
funk
workout called
"Disco Mystic"
(hey, this was 1979). But lyrically,
found
moving away from the boho decadence of most of his 1970s work and toward a more compassionate perspective on his characters;
"Families"
and
"All Through the Night"
display an empathy and emotional depth
didn't often allow himself as a solo artist, and
"Stupid Man"
"Looking for Love"
rocked hard while making the loneliness of their protagonists felt. And the title cut, with
experimenting with a guitar synthesizer and
free jazz
hero
Don Cherry
inviting the spirit on trumpet, is both a brave exploration of musical space and a lyrically touching sketch of loss and salvation. An album that's worn well over time,
gains depth with each playing and now sounds like one of
's finest solo efforts of the 1970s. ~ Mark Deming