Of course, we never confused with Lou Reed Compagnie Créole. That New York is more focused on despair, street, powder, hard sex and nihilism is public knowledge. And all this is true. But it has never been so striking that over Berlin. With the help of Bob Ezrin and a studio band sharks, Lou Reed tells the tragic love of two lovers damned. A short summary? It all starts with bitter memories of Jim remembering a happy time with Caroline (Berlin, a piano bar abysmal sadness). Then the description so discrete Carolina woman who explodes when she starts singing (Lady Day, a Bible organ). After a finding of an icy indifference on social opposites (Men Of Good Fortune, guitars agreements sometimes air and dry and cold), Jim gets humiliated by Carolina, but remains deeply in love (Caroline Says pH, rhythm and hopping gay ) then undergoes a depression oppiacée severe (How Do You Think It Feels, slowly and leisurely, low omnipresent). That's when Caroline Jim covers sarcasm once too (Oh Jim, on the edge of funk-rock). Then a poignant scene: Caroline is psychologically drained by the beatings of Jim, who did not bother to beat (Caroline Says pII, guitar arpeggios boulversantes). Things get even darker when social services withdrew custody of her children Caroline, while Jim is in rather rejoice (The Kids, perfect guitar and bass, and the heart-rending cries of the kids). Caroline could not stand the shock, she has carved veins but Jim did not seem upsets his death (The Bed, haunted guitar, one of the finest pieces of the disc). All this ends with a chocant finding of coldness and bitterness of Jim (Sad Song, sumptuous orchestration). There you go. Lou Reed had already composed despairing songs in the past and in other composerais in the future. But Berlin will forever remain his most bitter, depressing and disenchanted. Especially, it is even in 2003 his most beautiful disc, poignant and accomplished.
