Lou Reed, Berlin (side A)

1973's Berlin sounds almost like a rock record.  Punchy drums underlie the songs, most of which follow conventional rock structures.  Lou Reed's familiar voice fills a role similar to the one it took on Transformer.  The bass and electric guitar fill fairly typical roles.  In other ways, Berlin could not resemble rock music less.  While the drums often offer propulsion, the rest of the instruments seem to be falling off of them without an effort to keep up.  The very start of the album is an odd recording which gives no hint of the more conventional music that will follow.  Strange folk instruments like dulcimers turn up, but their performance does not reference rock's folk roots — instead, they sound like a missing overdub extracted inappropriately from Pet Sounds.  The resulting juxtapositions are disorienting and confusing.  Everything is well recorded and tastefully mixed, and the cover design looks appropriately like an artist's imitation of an idiomatic rock album cover.