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- Record Label: Light in the Attic Records
- Release Date: Sep 27, 2024
- Summary: The compilation of 25 tracks written or co-written by Lou Reed during his time at Pickwick Records includes "The Ostrich" by The Primitives, which features Reed on vocals.
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- Record Label: Light in the Attic Records
- Genre(s): Experimental, R&B, Pop/Rock, Contemporary Pop/Rock, Album Rock, Hard Rock, Art Rock, Punk/New Wave, Proto-Punk, AM Pop, New York Punk, Early R&B, Brill Building Pop, Glam Rock, Surf, Girl Groups
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Positive: 4 out of 5
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Mixed: 1 out of 5
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UncutOct 8, 2024It’s material that’s fascinating just as much for what it tells us about pop culture as it does Lou Reed, from a time where pop and rock hadn’t become overly codified and nobody exactly knew what music teenagers would fall for. [Nov 2024, p.55]
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Oct 8, 202425 tracks of faux-Brill Building candy, corn and echo-laden chaos with linernotes by Richie Unterberger worthy of a PhD thesis. It is also an essential, at times wickedly delightful‚ corrective to the habitual dismissals of this era, Reed’s included. [Nov 2024, p.96]
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Oct 8, 2024This collection is at its most intriguing in the brief moments where listeners can hear Reed experimenting with these ideas, ones he'd fully realize a little further down the road with the Velvet Underground. These moments show up fairly unambiguously in the sadistic sneering of the Primitives, but they're also there to be found just a little bit deeper below the surface of songs where Reed was trying his best to emulate simplistic pop music but couldn't keep his inherent darkness from showing.
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Classic Rock MagazineOct 11, 2024A must for serious Velvet-heads. .... Something of a mixed bag. [Nov 2024, p.87]
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Record CollectorOct 8, 2024The 25 tracks offered on Why Don't You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-1965 vary from lost gems, through proficient approximations of hit-makers like Phil Spector, to throwaway misfires. [Nov 2024, p.95]