Why Don't You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65 2LP

Light in the Attic, in cooperation with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive, is thrilled to announce the release of Why Don't You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65. The latest installment in LITA's critically acclaimed Lou Reed Archive Series is a compilation of pop songs penned by Reed during his mid-'60s stint as a staff songwriter for the long-defunct label Pickwick Records. The compilation follows on the heels of Lou Reed's Hudson River Wind Meditations (2023) and Words & Music, May 1965 (2022).

One of the most original and innovative figures in music history, Reed (1942-2013) first gained recognition as co-founder and frontman of the massively influential Velvet Underground. Over the course of his five-decade career, the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer brought his singular vision to an eclectic expanse of musical endeavors, including era-defining albums like 1972's Transformer and wildly experimental works like the 1975 avant-garde noise classic Metal Machine Music. But before establishing himself as an enduringly iconic singer, songwriter, musician, and poet, Reed got his start as an in-house songwriter (and occasional session guitarist/vocalist) for Pickwick Records—a label specializing in sound-alike recordings that emulated the major pop hits of the day. Encompassing everything from garage-rock and girl-group pop to blue-eyed soul and teen-idol balladry, Reed's output for Pickwick ultimately offers a fascinating early glimpse at his ever-evolving and truly limitless artistry.

The album has been restored and remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated mastering engineer John Baldwin. Both the 2xLP and CD editions feature in-depth booklets with unseen photos, liner notes by Richie Unterberger (renowned music journalist and author of such acclaimed titles as White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-by-Day), and an essay by Lenny Kaye (the legendary guitarist, Patti Smith Group co-founder, writer, producer, and curator of seminal garage-rock anthology Nuggets).

The double-LP package is designed by multi-GRAMMY®-winning artist Masaki Koike and pressed at world-renowned plant Optimal (Germany). This release marks the first official anthology of Lou Reed's work for Pickwick Records and features rarities, cult classics (The Primitives' "The Ostrich"), and previously unreleased material (The Beachnuts' "Sad, Lonely Orphan Boy").

Reed wearing his Phil Spector/Joe Meek hat makes for some fun and entertaining tunes, but Why Don't You Smile Now also succeeds at exposing some of the formative elements of the Velvet Underground that Reed was developing during this phase....This collection is at its most intriguing in the brief moments where listeners can hear Reed experimenting with these ideas, ones he'd fully realize a little further down the road with the Velvet Underground. These moments show up fairly unambiguously in the sadistic sneering of the Primitives, but they're also there to be found just a little bit deeper below the surface of songs where Reed was trying his best to emulate simplistic pop music but couldn't keep his inherent darkness from showing.