Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammet insists that Lulu, their notorious 2011 collaboration album with musician Lou Reed, is one one the band’s best records.
The record was snubbed by all but three percent of Metallica’s fanbase, selling 15,000 copies during its first week of release compared to 490,000 for 2008′s Death Magnetic. Even their much-maligned 2003 album St. Anger sold 418,000 in its first week. Reed admitted he’d had death threats following the album’s release.
But Hammet tells The Verge, “I think Lulu is some of the best stuff we’ve ever done. The song Junior Dad moves me to tears. And working with Lou was such a cool, unique and special thing for us. Maybe it’s not for everyone. Maybe it’s a challenge for our fans. But for us – Lars, James, Rob and myself – we loved doing it and it was such a great experience. We look back at it very positively.”
Metallica have just released highly-anticipated concert movie Through The Never, and they’ve vowed to turn their attention to a new album early next year.
additional source: classicrockmagazine.com
27 Responses
I think that LULU is a masterpiece that suffers from it s own excesses. Each song and the album itself have good moments but everything is just way too long. Kirk Hammet should take pride in LULU, he sounds great on it and deviates from his signiture sound to accommodate Reed’s spoken word singing. The period imagery is good but the story gets lost in tedium. A shorter re edit or live versions of some songs may do justice to what this project tried to accomplish. 90 minutes is hard to take. My commute to work is 20. BILL WARD, JANICK GERS, PAUL RODGERS and oh yes LULU are all great.
LOU REED ROCK N ROLL ANIMAL with Dick Wagner on lead guitar is a great live album.
How bout with The Village People, another NYC influenced album…too bad their producer is gone. Lars lookin like the indian in the video.
Gotta be honest, I’ve never listened to it or really even tried to. Just the short preview clips on Amazon I think. Not interested. As far as I was concerned it wasn’t going to be a Metallica album anyway and the Load – St. Anger era greatly weakened my confidence in them. St. Anger had potential, the aggression was there but production was abysmal and where was Kirk Hammett? I like Death Magnetic, I’m not disappointed with it at all really. Still gets played regularly in my car.
Wow! This just solidifies my thoughts that these guys are so far gone in their egos its embarrassing. I’ll admit, I only heard 2 songs off LULU, but that was enough to make me not want to hear the rest. Death Magnetic was good, nothing great. Beyond Magnetic never should have seen the light of day. There’s a reason those songs didnt make it on Death Magnetic, they suck really bad!! I’m starting to think the well has gone dry for these guys. What’s it been? 5-6 years since Death Magnetic? Quit with the live dvd’s, the freakin 3d movie, and just put out an album for cryin out loud!!! I recently heard their performance at the Apollo on Sirius. All the guys sounded really good, except for…. [drum roll] LARS! I know, big surprise. Unfortunately he brought the rest of the band down with his useless drum fills, god-awful crash/ride cymbals, and the overall crappy sound of his kit, which has improved since St. Anger but still lacks the thundering sound from the Justice/Black days. I was really impressed with James’ voice. He can hit the high notes but also can do the low growls. I thought Kirk played well too. I know he’s suffered in recent years playing wise. They should give Lars a year to practice what he used to be good at. Then when he cant play up to snuff they should just get somebody like Dave Lombardo or Bobby Jarzombek to replace him.