Lou Reed and Metallica reveal Lulu details and single-handedly change the face of [this one news story] forever

Listen up, Jack White, Flaming Lips, et al. Here’s how the pros engage in PR-drunk, crack-pot collaborations. First off, you probably remember from that one time you were on the internet that Lou Reed (you know, art-rocky Velvet Underground guy? Kinda looks like Anthony Bourdain? Can’t sing too well anymore?) has joined forces with Metallica (you know, the only metal band ever?) to record a collaborative album after jamming together at 2009’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert. Yeah, apparently, Metallica passed the expert-musician test by successfully playing the “Sweet Jane” riff on guitar, but anyway….

So the icons hooked up later like some kind of avant-metal megazord to record what would become Lulu, an album based on a series of songs Reed wrote for American avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson and German theater group The Berliner Ensemble’s production of The Lulu Plays, which is a totally for-real thing that premiered in April at the theater that fucking Bertolt Brecht founded in Berlin. The songs themselves were inspired by German expressionist Frank Wedekind’s early-20th-century plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, as well as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” Which, okay, sure. German guy? Poe? That doessound pretty art-metal.

Anyway, long and ridiculous story short, now the thing is done and it’s being released on November 1 in the US via Warner Brothers and (hold your LOLs) on Halloween (October 31) everywhere else by Vertigo Records. Co-produced by Reed, Metallica, Greg Fidelman, and Hal Willner (who has produced a few of Reed’s past albums, Marianne Faithfull, and Laurie Anderson), the album contains such delicious track titles as “Mistress Dread,” “Iced Honey,” and “Junior Dad,” the last of which apparently clocks-in at over 19 minutes in length, because, duh, all serious music is long. And Lulu is serious as a heart attack, according to Reed. “We had to bring Lulu to life in a sophisticated way, using rock,” he says. “And the hardest power rock you could come up with would have to be Metallica […] We played together, and I knew it: dream come true. This is the best thing I ever did.” Hear that, everyone? BEST THING HE EVER DID.

Lulu tracklisting:

01. Brandenburg Gate
02. The View
03. Pumping Blood
04. Mistress Dread
05. Iced Honey
06. Cheat On Me
07. Frustration
08. Little Dog
09. Dragon
10. Junior Dad

• Metallica: http://www.metallica.com
• Lou Reed: http://www.loureed.com
• Lou’tallica: www.loureedmetallica.com