All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

PopMatters

This is the kind of beautiful album that Reed knows he can make in his sleep yet seldom does.

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CDNow

Vintage Reed?

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Billboard

"Ecstasy" finds 58-year-old rock poet Lou Reed characteristically fixing his gaze on messier thoughts and murkier emotions -- and doing so more artfully than at any time since his 1989 masterpiece, "New York."

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HOB.com

In twelve brutally honest and dark tracks, Reed revisits the best elements of his early work...

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Rolling Stone

Understandably, Reed's old fascination with sadomasochistic transcendence puts off those who don't swing that way at least a little. But the music on this record, its gorgeous part, could change that.

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Wall of Sound

Reed has lost neither his lyrical bite nor his sonic perfectionism.

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New Musical Express

The main criticism of this record is that a few tracks are merely good, as opposed to epochal.

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Checkout.com

Though Ecstasy is gruesome, fearsome and rife with realism much in the same way as his heart-stopping shocker, Berlin (1973), Reed has a compelling way with words, and a magic touch with psycho-delic guitar riffs that dare us to follow him down the back alleys to his darkest thoughts.

Puncture

Hardly surprising to find some dross here, I suppose, since the whole thing clocks in at 77 minutes, 26 seconds. For those willing to make their own "best of" tape, through, Ecsatsy has a lot to offer. [#46, p.33]

Pitchfork

While Ecstasy is essentially a concept album about the fantasies and realities of love and family, it includes as much sex, drugs, and rock n' roll culture as any of Reed's earlier work.

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Mojo

Ecstasy is definitely a Lou Reed record for Lou Reed fans. If you're a happy regular shopper at Lou's Boutique, this one'll fit nicely on the shelf alongside all the others.

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Sonicnet

There are more flashes of the old White Light/White Heat Reed than the old crank has provided even diehard loyalists in years.

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Nude As The News

The best record Lou Reed has made in a long time.

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All Music Guide

Reed genuinely seems to be stretching towards new lyrical and musical ground here, but while some of his experiments work, several pointedly do not?

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Dot Music

So there it is, bizarre, world-weary, beautiful, touching, self-indulgent but never, never dull ? at least not until at least nine minutes into 'Like A Possum'.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

As uneven an album as Reed has released, it might be easier to take if there had been more of them in the past seven or eight years. Instead, it feels like the latest in a series of anticlimaxes.

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Spin

Signature oh-so-mellow, mumblin' beat, only this time with just too much remove and far too little energy to make it work.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

brent gave it a9:
This would've been a 10 but it is bloated (like this review). The brilliance of Lou Reed is he coulda stripped it down to 6 songs and pulled it off. It's a reward to the faithful, and he'll do it again someday. How often does it come, fans? Coney Island Baby? Street Hassle? Blue Mask? Berlin? New York? Who else would follow decades blindly adoring some records, liking a little of some records, not ever playing some (London, Raven) except Lou fans? Ecstasy is the awesome sonic marriage of his writing and words, his reckless musical ear, his passion, and his guitar playing. Baton Rouge is staggering in verse and strum. Rock Minuet is crafted so terrifying in shit guitar and homicidal prose. Possum rules. It's 18 minutes of dirge and filth that owes nothing to anybody. Turning Time Around is the honest, gripping love song we've been waiting for since "Think It Over." Big Sky ends with 5 minutes of crotch-satisfying feedback between he and Mike Rathke that soars and soars and makes Billy Corgan's/Pumpkins experiments like "Drown" seem like amateur hour. What do you do at retirement age? You've out-punked punk (VU, Street Hassle), out-gothed goth (Bells, Berlin), you've out heavy-metaled them all (r'n'r animal, MMM), and now you just want that clean mainline to the heart....hmmm...release a staggering amount of original material on one album that will keep the critics dumbfounded and perplexed and tongue-tied? An aging cult artist whose only love seems to be craft and creativity and guitar music?Hats off to you brother. This is your Citizen Kane. That you never gave the world another rocknroll animal or walk on the wild side or new york makes me admire you more.

James L. gave it a 6:
As usual, Lou seems inspired on about half the cuts while the rest seems to be filler.

Jimbocious gave it a 6:
as a onetime "big fan" I can only wonder what is yet to come..a solid "6" here

Mark W. gave it a 9:
Underrated, classic.

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