New York is the fifteenth solo album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by Lou Reed

Lou Reed

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

. It was received very warmly as a return to the style of The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...

 - founded by Reed in the 1960s. Velvet drummer Maureen Tucker

Maureen Tucker

Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker is a musician best known for having been the drummer for the rock group The Velvet Underground.- The Velvet Underground :...

 played on the album.

"Dirty Blvd." was a #1 hit on the newly created Billboard Modern Rock Tracks

Modern Rock Tracks

Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...

 chart for four weeks.

Background and lyrics

Reed's straightforward, rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 sound on this album was unusual for the time and along with other releases such as Graham Parker

Graham Parker

Graham Parker is a British rock singer and songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the popular British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.-Early career :...

's The Mona Lisa's Sister

The Mona Lisa's Sister

The Mona Lisa's Sister is a 1988 album by Graham Parker. It was Parker's first album for RCA following an acrimonious split with Atlantic and the first he produced himself . The "stripped-down" sound of the album garnered critical acclaim and presaged a back-to-basics trend in rock music in the 1990s...

presaged a back-to-basics turn in mainstream rock music

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

. On the other hand, the lyrics

Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

 through the 14 songs are profuse and carefully woven, making New York Reed's most overtly conceptual

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 album since the early 1970s. His polemical liner notes

Liner notes

Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...

 direct the listener to hear the 57-minute album in one sitting, "as though it were a book or a movie." The lyrics vent anger at many public figures in the news at the time. Reed mentions by name the Virgin Mary, the NRA

NRA

NRA is an abbreviation that may mean:* National regulatory authorities , government agencies tasked with regulating and supervising sections of public service and economy...

, Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani

Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....

, "the President"

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

, the "Statue of Bigotry"

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...

, Buddha

Buddha

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

, Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson

Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...

, Bernard Goetz, Mr. Waldheim

Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...

, "the Pontiff"

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

, Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson

Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...

, Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, Swaggart

Jimmy Swaggart

Jimmy Lee Swaggart is a Pentecostal American pastor, teacher, musician, television host, and televangelist. He has preached to crowds around the world through his weekly telecast...

, and Morton Downey

Morton Downey, Jr.

Morton Downey, Jr. was an American singer, songwriter and later a television talk show host of the 1980s who pioneered the "trash TV" format on his program The Morton Downey Jr. Show....

.

Track listing

All tracks written by Lou Reed except as indicated.

1. "Romeo Had Juliette" – 3:09
2. "Halloween Parade" – 3:33
3. "Dirty Blvd.
   Dirty Blvd.
   "Dirty Blvd." is a Lou Reed song from his 1989 album, New York. The song contrasts the poor and the rich in New York City, and topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for four weeks in early 1989. Live versions appear on Perfect Night: Live in London and Animal Serenade...
   
   " – 3:29
4. "Endless Cycle" – 4:01
5. "There Is No Time" – 3:45
6. "Last Great American Whale" – 3:42
7. "Beginning of a Great Adventure" (Reed, Mike Rathke) – 4:57
8. "Busload of Faith" – 4:50
9. "Sick of You" – 3:25
10. "Hold On" – 3:24
11. "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim" – 4:35
12. "Xmas in February" – 2:55
13. "Strawman" – 5:54
14. "Dime Store Mystery" – 5:01

Reception

In 1989, Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

ranked it the 19th best album of the 1980s. Mark Deming wrote in his allmusic.com review that "New York is a masterpiece of literate, adult rock & roll, and the finest album of Reed's solo career." In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at #26 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".

Charts

Year	Chart	Position
1989	Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	40
1989	UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	14

Additional musicians

• Mike Rathke – guitar
• Rob Wasserman
  Rob Wasserman
  Rob Wasserman is an American bass player, who has played with a wide variety of musicians including David Grisman, Lou Reed, Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Bruce Cockburn, Van Morrison, Rickie Lee Jones, Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Mark Morris, Aaron Neville, Chris Whitley, Studs Terkel, Pete Seeger,...
  
   – Clevinger electric upright six-string bass
• Fred Maher
  Fred Maher
  Fred Maher is an American drummer, programmer and record producer.He was a member of Massacre , Material, Scritti Politti, Lou Reed, and is best known as the producer of I'm Talking's album Bear Witness , Lou Reed's album New York , Matthew Sweet's album Girlfriend , and Information Society's self...
  
   – drums, Fender bass
• Maureen Tucker
  Maureen Tucker
  Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker is a musician best known for having been the drummer for the rock group The Velvet Underground.- The Velvet Underground :...
  
   – percussion
• Jeffrey Lesser – background vocals
• Dion DiMucci
  Dion DiMucci
  Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
  
  – background vocals