10 Hyped Hard Rock Albums That Weren't Worth The Wait

To many of us, the announcement of a collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica was exciting, promising the synthesis of two disparate but comparably formidable forces of the musical world. Reed had dabbled plenty in heavier sounds throughout a career spanning six decades, and, while many of Metallica's prior experiments hadn't produced perfect results, they were still one of the most interesting bands ever to sport the rock and metal name.

By 2011, Metallica had been touring for three years, since the release of Death Magnetic (2008), which itself was a solid return to form. So the promise of a new album from the Big Four's biggest four was tantalising to say the least. Reed, on the other hand, hadn't released anything since 2007's four-track guided meditation record Hudson River Wind Meditations, so all bets were off on what to expect from the avant garde rock enigma himself.

What followed, however, was Lulu. The rest is history.

A concept album based on the two "Lulu plays" by Gemran playwright Frank Wedekind, Lulu is an unsettling mix of monotone, spoken word vocals from Reed, stock Metallica riffs, and a cavalcade of profoundly non-musical lyrics ('I am the table', anyone?). Not only was the record a severe disappointment to many fans who had still not recovered from some of Metallica's earlier failures, it remains a genuinely challenging listen, with some of its thoroughly draining songs running as long as 20 minutes.