Blue Mask

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Lou's 1982 RCA album, his first after returning to the labelfrom Arista. Dedicated to his long-time inspiration, poetDelmore Schwartz, the album features guitarist Robert Quineand 10 tracks, including 'My House', 'Women' and 'The DayJohn Kennedy Died'. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Tracks:

My House
Women
Underneath The Bottle
The Gun
The Blue Mask
Average Guy
The Heroine
Waves Of Fear
The Day John Kennedy Died
Heavenly Arms

Album Description

Lou's 1982 RCA album, his first after returning to the labelfrom Arista. Dedicated to his long-time inspiration, poetDelmore Schwartz, the album features guitarist Robert Quineand 10 tracks, including 'My House', 'Women' and 'The DayJohn Kennedy Died'.

Customer Reviews:

The Blue Mask.......2007-05-29

Lou Reed-The Blue Mask *****

The Blue Mask was released in 1982, this is at least 15 years into his career of making amazing music. After the death of his long time idol and mentor Delmore Schwartz who he studied under Reed decided to dedicate an album to him. That album turned out to be The Blue Mask, incidently this happens to be Reeds most mature and thought out album. With lyrics more thoughtful then ever before and much more personal then ever before or since if that is even possible.

To this day, and even on the day of the albums release The Blue Mask is hailed by fans and critics alike as one of if not Lou Reeds all time greatest achievement as a solo artist. While this is one of his better solo records and sure as hell can rival some of his work with The Velvet Underground, The Blue Mask is not Reeds greatest triumph as a solo artist that would go to either New York or Berlin.

However songs like 'The Day John Kennedy Died' and 'Underneath The Bottle' are easily to the best songs ever written. Rockers like 'Average Guy' and the albums closer 'Heavenly Arms' so a different side of Reed that was never shown before, Reed always boasted about confidence and cool and being self-reliant, these songs so fear, and longing for a connection a weaker, yet, more mature Reed, one that wasnt in the 1970's.

As a whole, The Blue Mask is the most solid and concistant album Lou Reed ever recorded solo, and is in a league of its own. The Blue Mask is yet another Lou Reed solo album that is far superior to that of Transformer but will never get the recognition it deserves because of the hit single on Transformer, oh well as long as the real music fans know the truth.

You Know It's Worth 5.......2006-11-14

I'll only say this once: Lou Reed is not a pop star or a pop musician or anyone you could categorize as compared to anybody. Lou Reed is anti-everbody. He just wants to rock. RIP, the late Robert Quine who really made this album by goading a new, sober Lou into playing the guitar again, Lou is better than Jimi Hendrix. Always. (If anybody calls me on this I will provide a bunch of easy career examples.) He just didn't always know it sometimes. My House begins the album and you know why: you have two crazy-tuned guitars dancing around over a bassist and drummer who are just understanding each other, live on tape, that this is more sensitive than jazz and more experimental and intense and moving than anything you've heard before. It sets the tone. This is Lou Reed with 3 musicians in an odd improvisational experiment. The Velvets were his best band, sure, but to walk into a studio with strangers and pull this off? This album is controlled, newly sober, experimental and joyful and feedback and soul and drone and rage. This album is Lou Reed born again.
I'm a big fan. I'm also honest enough to say he does this only every once in a while...

He Found his Pride Underneath the Bottle.......2006-05-29

Dig Lou Reed on this album. Transformer and Berlin don't even come close to this album. Hope this helps.

The best of Lou's middle phase!.......2006-03-18

The Blue Mask is undoubtedly one of Lou Reed's finest albums and one of his most raw, angry, and personal song collections. I love all of Lou's music, and soon after The Blue Mask, his songs began to evolve into more allegorical tales with broader intonation and composition. The Blue Mask is the last Lou Reed album with a large collection of the hard edged, riff driven rock songs. This is combined with incredibly personal lyrics that are confessional, shocking, and provocative.

The title cut is a sonic triumph focused on sadomasochistic themes, "Take the blue mask down from my face and stick me in the eye. I get a thrill from punishment, I've always been that way." Other highly personal compositions also work well both musically and lyrically. Underneath the Bottle is a song documenting the trials and consequences of alcholol abuse (Lou sings, "I've got bruises on my legs from I can't remember when..."). Waves of Fear is another hard riffing song that captures paranoid stress and confusion. It evokes a midnight breakdown after ingesting too much and too many things. The sinister "The Gun" brings us into the mind of a gun toting criminal: "The man has a gun and he knows how to use it. 6mm Browning, let's see what he can do." The song goes on to tell us just what the man is up to.

Now if all these sound morbid and challenging, well, they are. But the Blue Mask is much more. These songs are juxtaposed with compositions that express incredible passion and empathy. My favorite of these is "The Day John Kennedy Died," which showcases Lou as a highly reflective and socially engaged songwriter.

The Blue Mask is certainly a challenging and thought provoking album that is not easily forgotten once heard. If you want to go beyond the popular Lou Reed songs and his most recent more accessible work, this album is for you. Be prepared and enjoy!

Good, But Way Over-Rated.......2005-04-25

This is a good Lou Reed album, but a "masterpiece"? Uh...not at all, in my opinion. Robert Quine's guitar sounds nice. "Waves of Fear" is a great track. "My House" has some nice lyrics. "The Day John Kennedy Died" is well-intended, but very schmaltzy. And the rest is no better or worse than anything on "Growing Up in Public" - compare the two, folks. There ain't much difference. A much better album is LEGENDARY HEARTS from 1983. Lou's previous masterpiece was STREET HASSLE, prior to BLUE MASK, and he wouldn't have another until NEW YORK in 1989.
BLUE MASK is just another good Lou Reed album, nothing special.

Average customer rating:

I thought I was more of a "traditionalist", ...
If Miles was still alive.
Badass Drum-n-Bass Action!
Fantastic new sound

The Mask
Erik Truffaz
Manufacturer: Blue Note Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00004TLZH
Release Date: 2000-06-20

Tracks:

Sweet Mercy
Arroyo
More
Less
No Choice
The Mask
The Dawn
Betty
Bending New Corners
Minaret
And

Amazon.com

The French have had a love affair with Miles Davis going back to his score for the 1957 film Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud. But French native and popular trumpeter-composer Eric Truffaz takes admiration to new levels on his U.S. debut, a compilation of tracks from his Blue Note France albums Out of a Dream, The Dawn, and Bending New Corners. Using familiar components of Miles's hotly debated 1970s sound (Agharta, Big Fun, On the Corner)--including muted trumpet, graceful figures, cerebral melodies, and atmospheric electric piano--Truffaz appears as a talented clone. But his music is redeemed by its very assimilation of Miles's style and elegance. Truffaz and his expressive quintet write evocative compositions rife with darkly gorgeous melodies, performed in a variety of contemporary styles. Quasi drum and bass fills "Bending New Corners" and "Betty"; whisper-funk imbues "The Dawn"; a springy groove straight from Sorcerer supports the elastic "Arroyo"; free-form noodling fills "Less"; and drum and bass noodling fills "More." Truffaz plays sumptuously on the eerie ballads "Wet in Paris" and "And." Many American acts sound flat and stiff when attempting this Milesian hipster style, but Truffaz and Co. pull it off with deft twirls. --Ken Micallef

Customer Reviews:

I thought I was more of a "traditionalist", ..........2001-09-28

Up 'til this album, (and still) my favorites consist(ed) of recordings such as Art Blakey-almost anything-especially MOSAIC, Griffin/Davis, Coltrane-BLUE TRAIN, Miles Davis (50's), Lee Morgan, classic BLUE NOTE, ... But this just woke me up! I bought it on the strength of the reviews I read, and I was not disappointed-this is a great album! Definately grooves in a detached kinda way, yet there's this hot trumpet going on as well. Hey, if Miles was doing this about 30 years ago, more power to him.

If Miles was still alive........2001-02-03

If Miles Davis was still alive and playing, this is what he might do. Errik Truffaz is not trying to copy Miles, but rather has absorbed his style and is moving on to the next level. I played several cuts from this CD on a jazz program I do in Santa Fe and got several calls wanting to know how they could obtain the disc. Erik Truffaz is an important new voice in jazz.

Badass Drum-n-Bass Action!.......2000-07-19

I'm not especially knowledgeable about jazz (this is one of the few jazz albums I own, and the rest are bossa nova or name-brand like Stan Getz) - but one thing I do know is that Erik Truffaz is the man. His flowing, warbling trumpet lines are propelled forward by awesome drum-n-bass percussion and bathed in atmospheric keyboard work, and it's that combination that puts this CD into 5-star territory. Truffaz's music is rigorously inventive and brings together all the right elements in the right proportions - drum-n-bass pitter-patter, wah-wah funkified keyboards and elegantly twisting trumpet lines work together in a way that's modern and subtly exhilirating. It combines a lot of contemporary, almost electronic atmosphere with the vigor of live instrumentation and a classic sound that incorporates, rather than copies, Miles Davis.

If you're into drum-n-bass and have even a passing interest in jazz - or even if you just like drum-n-bass and have heard of some guy named Miles Davis - you should buy this CD now. It's great stuff.

Fantastic new sound.......2000-06-21

This CD is actually a compilation of two import only CDs, "Bending New Corners" and "The Dawn". FINALLY some of his recordings are available directly in the US. (In fact I previously sent an email to Blue Note asking them why it wasn't available in the states! )

Mr Truffaz' sound is a blend of jazz a la Miles' Bitches Brew, hip hop and drum n bass. Great sound and great performances, albeit some may argue its almost too much of an homage to each of these genres.