Growing Up in Public closed Lou Reed's Arista era with an introspective and emotionally honest album. The songs explore his relationship with his father, fear of intimacy, alcoholism, and the search for an authenticity that Reed himself seemed to pursue without finding. It is his most overtly autobiographical record of the 1970s.
Reed and Michael Fonfara's production is austere, letting the lyrics occupy the center of the experience. Tracks like 'My Old Man', 'The Power of Positive Drinking', and 'Teach the Gifted Children' reveal a vulnerable Reed that contrasts with the hardness and irony of his earlier work.
Growing Up in Public is not a perfect album, but it is sincere to the bone. It signaled the end of an era and anticipated the artistic rebirth that would come two years later with The Blue Mask, when Reed finally found the personal and creative stability he had sought throughout the decade.