Lou Reed – Sally Can't Dance (CD)

Lou Reed famously despised this 1974 record, calling it the most producer-driven album of his career, yet it became his best-selling release. That tension is audible throughout, a downtown New York provocateur getting dressed up in slick arrangements while the lyrics stay as barbed and street-level as anything on "Transformer." For fans who know the Velvet Underground roots, the friction between Reed's vision and the polished studio sheen makes it one of his more fascinating documents.