The Raven | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | January 28, 2003 | |||
Recorded | 2002 | |||
Studio | Various
| |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 125:04 (2-disc edition) * 74:59 (1-disc edition) | |||
Label | Sire | |||
Producer | Lou Reed, Hal Willner | |||
Lou Reed chronology | ||||
|
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 54/100[1] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Blender | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Pitchfork Media | (2.0/10)[5] |
Robert Christgau | B+[6] |
The Raven is the nineteenth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released on January 28, 2003 by Sire Records. It is a concept album, recounting the short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe through word and song, and was based on his 2000 opera co-written with Robert Wilson, POEtry.[7]
The Raven features new and very different versions of two songs that Reed had released on earlier albums: "Perfect Day" (originally found on 1972's Transformer) and "The Bed" (from 1973's Berlin). In addition to Reed, the album features a number of guest vocalists including Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Antony Hegarty, Steve Buscemi and Willem Dafoe. The co-producer of the album, Hal Willner, had previously overseen the Poe tribute album Closed on Account of Rabies.
The recording was simultaneously released as a two-disc set of recordings and in an edited single-disc version. Painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel created the cover. The Raven would prove to be the final solo rock album by Reed, as 2007's Hudson River Wind Meditations consisted entirely of meditational new-age music, and 2011's Lulu was a collaborative rock album with heavy metal band Metallica.