Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music"

I've been collecting Lou Reed albums for the past month, and I came across "Metal Machine Music". This is by far the weirdest album I've ever heard. What really bothers me is that not only has this album been digitally remastered, but it's availible in a limited edition case!

One hour of pure noise... All I can do is laugh. The first time I heard it was when I was walking to work, and I had to keep lowering the volume on my Discman because it started to hurt my ears. After awhile it started pounding it's way into my brain, and I had to turn it off because I didn't want to go to work with a headache. After that I decided to put it on repeat and fall asleep to it. I had awful dreams of loud garbage trucks and construction workers.

I really don't like it, but I also don't hate it. It's just strange. I suppose it has it's charm.

You call that pure noise ? Guess you've never heard mid 90s Merzbow, or the New Blockaders. I consider it a chunk of pleasant spacey ambience that is relatively accessible for that style due to the way all the sounds pretty much line up as a constant major chord. It is surely abstract but it is not dissonant. The early Velvet Underground did lots of live soundtracks to experimental films and was heavily influenced by La Monte Young, MMM was Lou's nod to that period when he wanted to hold on to some credibility other than as a songwriter and rock performer. Contrary to rumor from that time it is not a joke nor an attempt to get out of or fulfill his record contract (note that he was on RCA before, during and after that album).