New Sensations by Lou Reed

New Sensations, Lou Reed's thirteenth solo studio album, came out on RCA in April 1984, and it's the sound of a newly sober Reed sounding like he's actually enjoying himself. He produced it with John Jansen, and the record is bright, tuneful and almost chipper, that deadpan voice riding clean guitars and pop hooks where there used to be menace.

"I Love You, Suzanne" is a bouncy romp that earned light MTV rotation and became the album's only charting single, with "My Red Joystick" and "High in the City" following it out. The album reached number 56 on the Billboard 200 and number 92 in Britain, Reed's first US Top 100 showing since Street Hassle in 1978 and his first UK chart entry since Coney Island Baby in 1976. Nearly four decades later, "Open Invitation", a leftover from the late 1983 sessions, finally surfaced online in 2023.

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