Lou Reed
New Sensations
Remastered CD | ICON 1014
- Originally released 1984
- Features the MTV hit "I Love You, Suzanne," plus "My Red Joystick" and "My Friend George"
- Fully restored packaging
- Exclusive liner notes by Michael Hill
- Digitally remastered from the original master tapes by Vic Anesini
Track Listing
- 1. I Love You, Suzanne
- 2. Endlessly Jealous
- 3. My Red Joystick
- 4. Turn to Me
- 5. New Sensations
- 6. Doin' the Things That We Want To
- 7. What Becomes a Legend Most
- 8. Fly into the Sun
- 9. My Friend George
- 10. High in the City
- 11. Down at the Arcade
Lineup
- Lou Reed – vocals, lead and rhythm guitar
- Fernando Saunders – electric and string bass, backing vocals, rhythm guitar on "My Red Joystick" and "My Friend George"
- Fred Maher – drums
- Peter Wood – piano, synthesizers, accordion
- L. Shankar – electric violin
- Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone
- Randy Brecker & Jon Faddis – trumpet
- Tom Malone – trombone, horn arrangement
- Jocelyn Brown, Rory Dodd
- Connie Harvey, Eric Troyer – backing vocals
Kicked off with “I Love You, Suzanne,” as close as Lou Reed ever came to a straight “pop” song, New Sensations is the most uniquely upbeat album in Reed’s canon. Also featuring the title track and “My Red Joystick,” New Sensations introduced Reed to a new, younger audience through MTV and major college radio airplay. The album ranked #1 in CMJ’s “Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1984.” The pop accessibility of New Sensations was not a capitulation to the marketplace, but a sign of the kind of strong personal shape Reed was in. His battles with drugs and alcohol were behind him, and Reed had married a woman named Sylvia Morales, who would later become his manager as well as his wife. New Sensations does have its darker moments, as one might expect, though it never turns bleak.
Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone, in a four-star review, called New Sensations “a long-overdue delight…for my money, the most consistently winning rock & roll album Reed has had a hand in since Loaded, the Velvets’ brilliant 1970 studio farewell.” Robert Christgau awarded New Sensations an A grade, noting “The music is simple and inevitable, and even the sarcastic songs are good sarcastic songs, with many of the others avoiding type altogether.”
New Sensations has been digitally remastered from the original master tapes by Grammy-winning engineer Vic Anesini, and augmented with liner notes by Michael Hill and expanded packaging.