''Legendary Hearts'' is the twelfth solo

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American rock musician

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

, released in March 1983 by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

. Reed produced the album, and dedicated it to his then-wife, Sylvia, who was credited with the cover concept. Due to tensions with Reed, most of

Robert Quine Robert Wolfe Quine (December 30, 1942 – May 31, 2004) was an American guitarist. A native of Akron, Ohio, Quine worked with a wide range of musicians, though he himself remained relatively unknown. Critic Mark Deming wrote that "Quine's eclect ...

's guitar parts were mixed down or removed entirely. ''Legendary Hearts'' peaked at No. 159 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart.

Recording

later said of his work with Reed, "The atmosphere was really uptight – it's impossible to be friends with him. When I got the final mix, I was really freaked out. He pretty much mixed me off the record. I was in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and took it out in the driveway and smashed the tape into pieces... I have cassettes of the rough mix of the record and it was a really good record but he made it all muddy and murky."

Critical reception

Upon release, ''Legendary Hearts'' received favorable reviews from music critics. Writing for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', music journalist

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

said that "if '' The Blue Mask'' was a tonic, the follow-up's a long drink of water, trading impact and intensity for the stated goal of this (final?) phase of Reed's music: continuity, making do, the long haul." ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' critic Cynthia Rose wrote that ''Legendary Hearts'' was "possibly the purest, most fluid and spiritual musical unity you'll hear in rock and roll for some time to come – with Reed's cleansed, declamatory vocals well up front". Robert Palmer of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' praised ''Legendary Hearts'' as "a song cycle without any outstanding weak links... All the songs are personal, from the domestic still-life portrait 'Rooftop Garden' to 'Bottoming Out' and 'The Last Shot,' powerful confrontations between Lou Reed the loving husband and Lou Reed the self-destructive monster. The only villain on ''Legendary Hearts'' is Lou Reed, but because he has confronted his own defects as bravely as he once confronted the decadence around him, he is also the album's hero. The two Lou Reeds have finally become one." Palmer also praised the musicianship, writing that "the band's playing and arrangements make these fine songs even better... The album's more reflective moments are made deeper and richer by ensemble playing that manages to be gentle without ever losing its tensile strength." Ira Robbins of ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' wrote that the album "ranks with any Reed record all the way back to the Velvets in substance and stands out as his strongest work in style, using the group as a powerful lens that magnifies his themes and obsessions down to the finest detail." ''Legendary Hearts'' placed seventh in ''The Village Voice''s annual

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

critics' poll. In a retrospective review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, critic Mark Deming wrote of the album, "On ''Legendary Hearts'', Reed was writing great songs, playing them with enthusiasm and imagination, and singing them with all his heart and soul, and if it wasn't his best album, it was more than good enough to confirm that the brilliance of ''The Blue Mask'' was no fluke, and that Reed had reestablished himself as one of the most important artists in American rock."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the ''Legendary Hearts'' liner notes. Musicians *

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

;

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

– guitar * Fred Maher –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Fernando Saunders –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

Production and artwork * Lou Reed – producer * Corky Stasiak –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Jim Crotty – associate engineer *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bishop ...

– mastering * Waring Abbott –

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

;

art direction Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...

* Sylvia Reed – cover concept

Chart performance

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Legendary Hearts 1983 albums Lou Reed albums RCA Records albums Albums produced by Lou Reed