Mistrial by Lou Reed

Mistrial, Lou Reed's 14th solo album, came out on RCA in April 1986, two years after New Sensations, and it finds the sober, clear-eyed Reed of his '80s return trying to keep the momentum rolling. He produced it with Fernando Saunders, and the guest list adds some grit: Panamanian singer Rubén Blades sings backup on "I Remember You" and "Tell It to Your Heart", and punk rocker Jim Carroll turns up on "Video Violence".

The singles were "The Original Wrapper" and "No Money Down", the latter the only one to chart, reaching number 75 in Australia, pushed along by a Godley & Creme video starring an animatronic Lou Reed. The clip for "The Original Wrapper" went the other way, with time-lapse footage of New Yorkers out on the street. The album stalled at 47 in America and 69 in Britain, a way station between the renewal of The Blue Mask and the full-bore triumph of New York.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.