Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Filter
    84
    The irony is that the closer Reed gets to his present material, the more alive it becomes. [#10, p.87]
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    83
    As usual, his ego rages, but so, thankfully, does his guitar. [26 Mar 2004, p.72]
  3. Blender
    80
    At 62, Reed apparently has indulged in the drug that rejuvenated Bob Dylan's career: enjoying himself. [Apr 2004, p.135]
  4. 70
    It’s worth ploughing through the strange to get to the beautiful, disturbing, fucked-up ‘Venus In Furs’ though, worth the full five stars all by itself.
  5. Serenade offers nice glimpses of Reed's laid-back side.
  6. Q Magazine
    70
    Even on a daft live album, he refuses to coast. [May 2004, p.106]
  7. Uncut
    70
    As ever with Reed, when it's good, it's blistering. [Apr 2004, p.104]
  8. The two-hour-plus runtime is gratuitous; probably the idea was to present the complete show (a la Alive by Kiss), but the effect is mind-numbing, and most of the successful experiments are lost in well-mannered gray.
  9. The Wire
    60
    Beautifully performed, but otherwise unadventurous. [#243, p.69]
  10. Mojo
    60
    It can't shake off the usual curse of live albums: an underlying sense, in the context of Reed's studio catalogue, of inescapable superfluity. [Apr 2004, p.114]
  11. The material ranges from the sublime to the good to the galling.
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. brent
    Aug 11, 2004
    10
    Listen to this record despite the list of "professional reviews" compiled above. Lou Reed is an aquired taste and an iconoclast, therefore, Listen to this record despite the list of "professional reviews" compiled above. Lou Reed is an aquired taste and an iconoclast, therefore, doing something so foolish as using conventional pop standards to judge him is impossible. Even without drums this 2003-edition Lou set is hypnotizingly intense. This is his artsy-fartsy side, and for a change, he pulls it off brilliantly. I like feedback-drenched Lou myself, but he never cared what any of us liked anyway. More power to him. Full Review »
  2. Shake
    May 24, 2004
    9
    A great artist shows his non-rock 'n roll-side and plays instead a strange but beautiful serenade...
  3. RicardoS
    Mar 25, 2004
    7
    30 years after Rock n'Roll Animal, Lou Reed proves he's still an animal on stage - though tamed and less ferocious. Still, Reed at 30 years after Rock n'Roll Animal, Lou Reed proves he's still an animal on stage - though tamed and less ferocious. Still, Reed at his (almost) best, apart from some very strange versions of his Velvet themes and an unnecessary Fernando Saunders song. Full Review »