I have read reviews and opinions of this album that have said it was a) a contract obligation middle finger to the record company, b) a stroke of genius, or c) simply a FU to the listeners. There seem to be many varying opinions.

Personally I quite like it. Yes, I have listened all the way through, on several occasions. You maybe need to be in the right frame of mind though. I would take this in preference to any other Reed solo album.

Lou is on record with saying he took advantage of the contract to release an album that otherwise would never see the light of day, and he did the whirlwind curmudgeon press releases to make sure his audience - having been bolstered by a pop rock crowd from his previous albums - wouldn't be caught unaware expecting another "Lou Reed album."

Its merits should never be doubted, and though there are more modern bands and approaches that *really* do it for me, MMM is such a ground zero that it can never be considered crap.

I cannot even fathom how proud he was to be able to tour it with Zeitkratzer in the 00's.

"My Week Beats Your Year" is a funny diss, which I'll assume was directed at the label execs, though it could have also been directed at the listener, or maybe just anyone who might have bristled at the recording when it came out.

Metal Machine Music is Not Crap. More "punk rock" than a fair amount of what passes for punk rock. I don't presently have a copy with me but I've heard it before and it's consistent with things that would be released on more recent niche noise labels. That it came out on MAJOR LABEL is pretty funny. Kind of a coup.

Back in h.s., in the library there, was a book titled something like The Worst Rock n' Roll Records of All Time. IIRC Metal Machine Music was at the number one spot, or way up there. People who are mostly accustomed to verse-chorus-verse type music can be completely out of their depth when saddled with music that doesn't abide by typical pop structures (stuff like No Pussy Footing, ambient music, experimental noise, E2-E4 sort of things, and so on).

Love the album, definitely not a yearly play.

When Lou died I played it twice through at visceral volume, it did everything I needed it to, and it's a world to lose yourself in. So NOT CRAP I don't have the superlatives to qualify it.

Any other major fans should try Autechre's track "all end" from NTS Sessions 4, it's a similar whole-body catharsis.

The last-ever Lou Reed thing, Hudson River Wind Meditations, got reissued earlier this year, after being out of print for some time. It's nowhere near as fiery/piercing/in the red as Metal Machine Music; if anything, it's closer to ambient and kind of slow and throbbing, and repetitive; but it's notable for being another entry in his non-singer-songwriter work that still holds up.

I still find it funny that Metallica were intimidated by him.

And his swords.

Decent record. Tempted to Crap it on account of Lou Reed being such a miserly cunt, but that's not the record's fault.

Not Crap.

Mediocre "Noise" record, made by a pretentious hack.

Yes I'm the CRAP vote. There's a slew of better albums employing the concept.

The only decent Lou Reed album has members of YES in the band .

(not trolling, this is how I feel, as I have said on any Lou poll that survived the archives)

NOT CRAP. Superlative record.

It's not quite a fully realised noise record but it's close enough for 1975. Proto-noise, maybe?

Def set the stage for the more abstract elements of the first wave industrial scene.

My fav Lou record by quite some distance (I do not like Lou Reed very much).

Not crap