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It didn’t take long for\u00a0Lou Reed<\/a>\u00a0to outgrow the Beach Boys<\/a>\u00a0cash-ins<\/a>\u00a0he was making as a contract artist and songwriter and head toward more fertile land. By 1965, he had met John Cale, and the pair started working on the music that would become\u00a0the core foundation of\u00a0the Velvet Underground<\/a>. Within two years, they released one of the most influential albums ever recorded.<\/p>\n Still, it was a rocky start and rarely a\u00a0lucrative one. From his early doo-wop fixations to a long career filled with band, solo and collaboration records that were confrontational, purposely difficult and\u00a0designed outright for commercial failure, Reed never compromised, as you’ll note in the list below of\u00a0Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground Albums Ranked.<\/p>\n The four albums he made with the Velvet Underground \u2013 before he walked away in disgust at the band’s lack of success \u2013 are acknowledged classics today, but they were commercial bombs when they were released. His solo album\u00a0Transformer<\/em><\/a>\u00a0gained him Top 40 fame in 1972; it wasn’t\u00a0long before Reed undermined his career with albums like\u00a0Berlin<\/em>\u00a0(a concept album about addiction and suicide) and\u00a0Metal Machine Music<\/em>\u00a0(often cited as one of the worst albums of all time).<\/p>\n READ MORE: <\/strong>How Loud Reed Made One of Rock’s Most Hated Albums<\/a><\/p>\n Reed\u00a0was an uncompromising artist until\u00a0he\u00a0died<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in 2013<\/a>. His final album,\u00a0Lulu<\/em><\/a>, a collaborative LP with\u00a0Metallica<\/a>, received backlash from fans of both artists and frequently appears alongside\u00a0Metal Machine Music<\/em>\u00a0on lists of the worst albums ever made. There aren’t too many people who’ve made one of the most influential records ever and one (or two) of the most reviled.<\/p>\n The list of\u00a0Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground Albums Ranked Worst to Best includes only studio albums, but a couple of live releases, both from 1974, are essential listens: Reed’s Rock n Roll Animal<\/em>, which\u00a0features four Underground songs and one from Berlin<\/em>, and the Velvets’ 1969: Velvet Underground Live With Lou Reed<\/em>, which cherry-picks songs from a pair of shows in Dallas and San Francisco. They help tell the story of one of music’s most\u00a0unwavering and contentious figures.<\/p>\n He’s made some of the most influential music ever. He’s also made some of the most reviled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nLou Reed and the Velvet Underground Albums Ranked Worst to Best<\/h2>\n