More Info: www.wampus.com

Verdict (& Rating): Melancholy relaxation (70%) 

Mmmmm........a tribute album. A tibute album to Lou Reed by a bunch of people I've never heard of. Come to think it, Lou Reed is an unknown quantity apart from "Walk On The Wild Side" & "Beautiful Day", which don't make an appearance here. If these guys were doing say a Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Deep Purple....tribute I'd have some sort of reference point. So the merits of this as a Lou Reed tribute album will have to go unassessed here. The album could be perpetrating the most horrendous crimes against Lou's music and I wouldn't know (although I suspect not). I'll leave that to the Lou Reed fans out there.

Wampus Mulitmedia is a US indie label, some of whose signings are featured here, who have previously released a Jonathan Richman tribute and who I think have Warren Zevon tribute in the pipeline. Now with a Warren Zevon tribute, I'd be in a better position to make comparisons with the original, having owned a couple of his albums. After Hours covers material from Lou's days in The Velvet Underground right through to his latter day solo material.

Despite the disprate nature of the recordings, the quality is consistent. Although I did have some tracks that pleased more than others, I think the album is best judged as a whole. I'd describe the album as pleasant listening (and I mean that in a positive, rather an a bland or negative sense), and I found it strangely relaxing. For example, it is great music to have on whilst reading a book or in my case restructuring a web site.

For me the highlights were the TomWaits/Willie Nelson-ish slow ballad of Pale Blue Eyes by Radio Caroline, Satellite of Love by Kowtow Popof which could even be described as 'catchy', the bluesy Turn To Me by The Underhills  and the simple melancholy ballad Cremation by Lee Rude. Other tracks worth a mention are the buzzing guitars of How Do You Think It Feels by tvfordogs and  the indie jangly guitars of Music For Viola's Going Down. The only tune that grated was the skiffle of Vicious by Okapi Guitars (the Duane Eddy meets The Shadows surf instrumental All Tommorrow's (Beach) Parties being another possible candidate on some listens).

The strengh of this album for me isn't individual songs, although it appears that the artists involved have lovingly crafted versions of their favourite Lou Reed songs. It works as a whole, albeit in a quiet rather than juggular grabbing way. I always thought that I'd find Lou Reed's talking/singing vocal style a bit of a turn off over the course of a full album, which is why I haven't investigated his music up until now. Therefore, this has been the ideal insight into Lou's work for me.

Mood Swings - Nigel Wilson - All Rights Reserved