When I first heard about Lou Reed's new album I thought that it sounded like the coolest idea ever. Lou was going to turn Edgar Allen Poe's words into music and songs. "What could be better?", I thought. The more I thought about it, though, it dawned on me that it could also be very bad--and not to mention--lame. But now that I've heard it, I can gladly tell you that it's brilliant. Not quite a masterpiece, but who knows, maybe in ten years, it will be. Reed with an all-star guest lineup (think of it as Lou pulling a Santana) that includes David Bowie, Wilem Dafoe, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman, doesn't quite just simply read Poe and recite quotes. No, that would be the copout, and he doesn't take that route, thankfully . Instead, he changes Poe's works sometimes to fit the context of the album's themes. Themes that featured heavily in Poe's work. Paranoia, fear of death, anger, and alienation are the themes that make up this gothic rock opera so that we are not simply hearing Poe's work read aloud, but instead getting an idea of the tortured author's world and the emotions that populated it. Reed himself only sings on a couple songs; the rest are Poe's poems acted aloud by Dafoe and Buscemi. Bowie sings on "Hop Frog" and even the Blind Boys Of Alabama make a appearance on the ghostly spiritual "I Wanna Know". The poems when read aloud are usually accompanied by the same kind of bizarre electronic racket that dominated Reed's Metal Machine Music. The album is two discs of pure joy for the Poe/ Lou Reed fanatic, but for the uninitiated or the few who simply want to hear Lou's songs, check out the single-disc version. Warning though, go into this with an open mind about abridged Poe...and remember, it is a rock opera. Light the candles, sit back and enjoy.