The announced album coming from the collaboration between Metallica and Lou Reed has a title ("Lulu") and now a cover. The artwork has been unveiled yesterday night and it's a spooky drawing of a sad, armless, mannequin torso. Watch it here.
Reed and Metallica have also begun to detail the tracklist for the 10-track effort. So far, five titles have been unveiled, with the remaining five to be announced through their website in the next hours.
The album comes from the idea of Reed's musical adaptation of a 1913 play about the life of an abused dancer (by German playwright Frank Wedekind). Reed explained the bizarre collaboration with Metallica this way: "We had to bring 'Lulu' to life in a sophisticated way, using rock and the hardest power rock you could come up with would have to be Metallica. This is the best thing I ever did. And I did it with the best group I could possibly find. By definition, everybody involved was honest. This has come into the world pure. We pushed as far as we possibly could within the realms of reality".
Metallica are enthusiast of the result, as James Hetfield recently remarked: "It was great when [Lou Reed] sent us the lyrics for the 'Lulu' body of work. It was something we could sink our teeth into. I could take off my singer and lyricist hat and concentrate on the music part. These were very potent lyrics, with a soundscape behind them for atmosphere. Lars and I sat there with an acoustic and let this blank canvas take us where it needed to go. It was a great gift, to be asked to stamp Metallica on it. And that's what we did".
Lulu will be in the stores in the UK on October 31st (in the U.S.A. on November 1st).
This is the partial tracklist:
01.
02.
03. Frustration
04.
05.
06. Junior Dad
07. Little Dog
08. Mistress Dread
09. Pumping Blood
10.
