New Sensations was Lou Reed's most optimistic and vitalist album in decades. Far from the darkness of Berlin or the intensity of The Blue Mask, the record celebrates simple pleasures — riding a motorcycle through the streets of New York, everyday love, music in its most basic state — with a positive energy surprising to those familiar with his earlier work.
The album includes some of his most directly pleasurable songs: 'I Love You Suzanne' is a perfect exercise in accessible rock and roll; 'Doin' the Things That We Want To' is a tribute to Sam Fuller and Raymond Chandler that captures Reed's love of American popular culture; and 'New Sensations' distills the album's philosophy in three minutes of pure celebration.
New Sensations was a moderate success and expanded Reed's audience to younger demographics. It is the album that demonstrates that even an artist associated with darkness and provocation can make light music without losing his own voice. A pleasant surprise in a discography full of sharp angles.