Editing Metal Machine Music (section)

==Critical reception==
{{Album reviews
| rev1      = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score = {{rating|1|5}}<ref name=amg>Deming, Mark. [https://www.allmusic.com/album/metal-machine-music-mw0000099717 Lou Reed ''Metal Machine Music'']. [[AllMusic]]. Retrieved July 14, 2022.</ref>
| rev2      = ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''
| rev2Score = {{Rating|1|4}}<ref name="Kot">{{cite news|last=Kot|first=Greg|author-link=Greg Kot|date=January 12, 1992|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/10/27/guide-to-lou-reeds-recordings/|title=Guide to Lou Reed's recordings|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|access-date=March 4, 2015}}</ref>
| rev3      = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
| rev3Score = C+<ref name="CG">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: R|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=R&bk=70|access-date=March 10, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref>
| rev4      = ''[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock]]''
| rev4Score = 5/10<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Fortnam|first=Ian|date=June 2010|title=Lou Reed ''Metal Machine Music''|magazine=[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock]]|page=93}}</ref>
| rev5      = ''[[Disc (magazine)|Disc]]''
| rev5Score = {{Rating|3|4}}<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=DF |date=2 August 1975 |title=Lou Reed |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Disc/1975/Disc-1975-08-02-S-OCR.pdf |magazine=[[Disc (magazine)|Disc]] |page=21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131103548/https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Disc/1975/Disc-1975-08-02-S-OCR.pdf |archive-date=31 January 2023}}</ref>
| rev6      = ''[[MusicHound|MusicHound Rock]]''
| rev6score = '''woof!'''<ref name="Kot/MH" />
| rev7      = ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]''
| rev7Score = 8.7/10<ref name="Richardson/Pitchfork" />
| rev8      = ''[[Record Collector]]''
| rev8Score = {{Rating|1|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Draper|first=Jason|date=June 2010|title=Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music|url=http://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/metal-machine-music|magazine=[[Record Collector]]|access-date=July 27, 2017}}</ref>
| rev9      = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev9Score = {{Rating|1|5}}<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=DeCurtis|editor1-first=Anthony|editor1-link=Anthony DeCurtis|editor2-last=Henke|editor2-first=James|editor3-last=George-Warren|editor3-first=Holly|year=1992|title=[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]|publisher=[[Random House]]|isbn=0679737294|edition=3rd|page=582}}</ref>
| rev10 = ''[[Tom Hull – on the Web]]''
| rev10Score = C<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tomhull.com/ocston/nm/get_gl.php?n=lou+reed|title=Grade List: Lou Reed|website=[[Tom Hull – on the Web]]|first=Tom|last=Hull|date=November 13, 2023|access-date=November 13, 2023}}</ref>
}}<!--List Automatically Moved by DASHBot-->
''Metal Machine Music'' confounded reviewers and listeners when it was first released. ''[[The Stranger (newspaper)|The Stranger]]''{{'}}s Dave Segal later claimed it was one of the most divisive records ever, challenging both critics and the artist's core audience, similar to the reception of [[Miles Davis]]' ''[[Agharta (album)|Agharta]]'' album, which was issued around the same time.<ref>{{cite news|last=Segal |first=Dave |year=2015 |url=http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/08/07/22652149/two-of-the-most-divisive-lps-of-all-timemiles-daviss-agharta-and-lou-reeds-metal-machine-musicare-now-40-years-old |title=Two of the Most Divisive LPs of All Time—Miles Davis's Agharta and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music—Are Now 40 Years Old |newspaper=[[The Stranger (newspaper)|The Stranger]] |location=Seattle |access-date=May 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516014603/http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/08/07/22652149/two-of-the-most-divisive-lps-of-all-timemiles-daviss-agharta-and-lou-reeds-metal-machine-musicare-now-40-years-old |archive-date=May 16, 2016 |url-status=live |df=mdy }}</ref>

''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine reviewed the album as sounding like "the tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator" and as displeasing to experience as "a night in a [[Bus station|bus terminal]]".<ref>Wolcott, James. [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/metal-machine-music-19750814 Rolling Stone Review]. August 14, 1975.</ref> In the 1979 ''[[Rolling Stone Record Guide]]'', critic Billy Altman said it was "a two-disc set consisting of nothing more than ear-wrecking electronic sludge, guaranteed to clear any room of humans in record time". (This aspect of the album is mentioned in the [[Bruce Sterling]] short story "Dori Bangs".) The first issue of the seminal New York zine [[Punk (magazine)|''Punk'']] placed Reed and the album in its inaugural 1976 issue, presaging the advent of both punk and the discordance of the New York [[No Wave]] scene. Reed biographer [[Victor Bockris]] wrote that the recording can be understood as "the ultimate conceptual punk album and the progenitor of New York punk rock". The album was ranked number two in the 1991 book ''The Worst Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time'' by Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/steveparker/slipped_discs.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060516033710/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/steveparker/slipped_discs.htm |url-status= usurped |archive-date= May 16, 2006 |title=Rocklist.net...Steve Parker...Slipped Discs |publisher=Rocklistmusic.co.uk |access-date=August 2, 2010}}</ref>

''[[Village Voice]]'' critic [[Robert Christgau]] referred to ''Metal Machine Music'' as Reed's "answer to ''[[Environments (album series)|Environments]]''" and said it had "certainly raised consciousness in both the journalistic and business communities" and was not "totally unlistenable", though he admitted for white noise he would rather listen to "[[Sister Ray]]".<ref name="CG" /> Writing in ''[[MusicHound|MusicHound Rock]]'' (1999), [[Greg Kot]] gave the album a "woof!" rating (signifying "dog-food"), and opined: "The spin cycle of a washing machine has more melodic variation than the electronic drone that was ''Metal Machine Music''."<ref name="Kot/MH">Gary Graff & Daniel Durchholz (eds), ''MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide'', Visible Ink Press (Farmington Hills, MI, 1999; {{ISBN|1-57859-061-2}}), p. 931.</ref> In 2005, [[Q (magazine)|''Q'' magazine]] included the album in a list of "Ten Terrible Records by Great Artists", and it ranked number four in ''Q''{{'s}} list of the 50 worst albums of all time. It was again featured in ''Q'' in December 2010, on the magazine's "Top Ten Career Suicides" list, where it came eighth overall. The ''[[Trouser Press]] Record Guide'' referred to it as "four sides of unlistenable oscillator noise", parenthetically calling that assessment "a description, not a value judgment".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=lou_reed |title=Lou Reed |publisher=TrouserPress.com |access-date=August 2, 2010}}</ref> Mark Deming's review for [[AllMusic]] said that while [[noise rock]] groups "have created some sort of context for it", ''Metal Machine Music'' "hasn't gotten any more user friendly with time", given it "paus[ed] only for side breaks with no rhythms, melodies, or formal structures to buffer the onslaught".<ref name=amg/>

Rock critic [[Lester Bangs]] wrote of ''Metal Machine Music'': "as classical music it adds nothing to a genre that may well be depleted. As rock 'n' roll it's interesting garage electronic rock 'n' roll. As a statement it's great, as a giant FUCK YOU it shows integrity—a sick, twisted, dunced-out, malevolent, perverted, psychopathic integrity, but integrity nevertheless." Bangs later wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about the album, titled "The Greatest Album Ever Made", in which he judged it "the greatest record ever made in the history of the human eardrum".<ref>Bangs, Lester. [http://www.rocknroll.net/loureed/articles/mmmbangs.html "The Greatest Album Ever Made"]. ''[[Creem]]'', March 1976</ref> In 1998, ''[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]]'' included ''Metal Machine Music'' in its list of "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)", with Brian Duguid writing:

{{quote|''Q'' magazine featured ''Metal Machine Music'' in its 50 Worst Records of All Time ... What higher recommendation could you possibly need? ... [''Metal Machine Music''] is at once the pre-eminent deranged noise record, an impossibly cacophonous screech of electric torment, and also a classic of [[Minimal music|Minimalism]]; some of the most enigmatic, exquisite harmonies ever documented. It's a pity the CD reissues can't include the original double LP's [[Unusual types of gramophone records#Sound recorded in locked grooves|locked groove]], but even if it doesn't last forever, the music is infinitely convoluted. It still awaits a proper critical reappraisal—even the gleefully enthusiastic Lester Bangs didn't fully 'get' ''Metal Machine Music''.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Duguid |first=Brian |title=100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening) — Lou Reed ''Metal Machine Music'' (RCA 1975, Reissued Great Expectations 1991) |date=September 1998 |magazine=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]] |issue=175 |page=36 |location=London |url=https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/35224/page/36 |url-access=subscription |via=[[Exact Editions]]}}</ref>}}

In a December 2017 review, Mark Richardson of ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' gave ''Metal Machine Music'' a score of 8.7 out of 10. He describes the album as an "exhilarating" listen.<ref name="Richardson/Pitchfork">{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lou-reed-metal-machine-music/ |first=Mark|last=Richardson|title=Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music|website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]|date=December 3, 2017|access-date=December 4, 2017}}</ref>

Despite the intense criticism (or perhaps because of the exposure it generated), ''Metal Machine Music'' reportedly sold 100,000 copies in the US, according to the liner notes of the 2000 CD reissue by RCA/[[Buddah Records]]<!-- sic, the name is spelled "Buddah" -->. The original 1975 RCA Victor LP edition was withdrawn within three weeks of its release.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/wzwx|title=BBC - Music - Review of Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music: Re-mastered}}</ref>