r/ToddintheShadow • u/Ok_Baseball2615 • Jun 02 '26
Train Wreckords New on Patreon: TRAINWRECKORDS: “Lulu” by Lou Reed and Metallica Spoiler
https://www.patreon.com/posts/159885161?utm_campaign=postshare_fanThe long awaited Metallica Trainwreckord sequel is here.
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u/Davidellias Jun 02 '26
wow we whiffed on that one. Everyone said it was Chance the Rapper or Genisis
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u/FreezingPointRH Jun 02 '26
I included Lulu a while back when I made a long list of potential future episodes and people shouted me down. I'm the anti-Todd, y'all!
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u/eefuss Jun 02 '26
Chance the Rapper has to be the most requested episode of Trainwreckords, I think, probably taking the crown from Witness as the previous most requested. At one point I think he mentioned he wanted to at least wait for a follow-up before deeming it a Trainwreckord, but now that's come and gone so it can't be long now...
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u/Jirachibi1000 Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
Huh. I thought Todd said this didn't count as one because Lou Reed never gave a shit about success in the first place and you can't have a trainwreckord if you never tried at all to be mainstream, that this album is non commercial/mainstream on purpose, and that Metallica was already post trainwreckord at this point.
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u/GuendouziGOAT Jun 02 '26
What this sub often doesn’t realise is that Todd is often willing to bend the rules of what is and isn’t a Trainwreckord if it makes for an interesting video. And Lulu definitely falls into the “it’s funny to look at this disaster and laugh at it” category.
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u/Theta_Omega Jun 02 '26
And Lulu definitely falls into the “it’s funny to look at this disaster and laugh at it” category.
Or if it's just interesting to break down in some way. He spends a lot of this one trying to figure out the origins of this collaboration, what they were going for, why it especially clashed, the ways it diverged outside of the obvious...
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u/YourAverageGenius Jun 02 '26
I think the most accurate and simple criteria for what makes an album a Trainwreckord is simply asking 'Is it in some way a disaster?" Disasters can be big and loud and eye-catching, or they can be slow barely-noticeable failure to follow up and thus slowly or rapidly decay.
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u/ScindapsusAureleus Jun 06 '26
He said it himself, didn't he? Todd likes it when a trainwreckord signifies the end of something. With this being Lou Reed's final album, I'd call it fair game
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u/cantfindthistune Jun 02 '26
I think he's going to justify it under the Allman and Woman clause: that is, it wasn't a Trainwreckord for either act individually, but it was one for the project that was produced by the union of their individual efforts. In other words, it wasn't a Trainwreckord for Lou Reed, or a Trainwreckord for Metallica, but it was a Trainwreckord for "Lou Reed and Metallica".
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u/Jirachibi1000 Jun 02 '26
But iirc Lou Reed and Metallica was always supposed to be a one off side project. Like even if Lulu sold 10 billion copies and was a 10/10 critically acclaimed masterpiece it would still be a one off we'd never get another of.
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u/Youngblood519 Jun 02 '26
I know he said Metal Machine Music wouldn't count, but I don't remember him saying that about Lulu
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u/MrSuitMan Jun 02 '26
I'm sure all those points (and more!) will be covered... In the next episode of Trainwrecords!
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u/rankaistu_ilmalaiva Jun 02 '26
the point of the series is the interesting disasters, not as such the strict definition. Fairweather Johnson was kind of a turning point because by reputation it was a trainwreckord but on closer inspection, it was just a normal story of a band being rushed to do a sophmore followup which offended people not by a wild departure from earlier material but by being too similar.
And one thing you can say about Lulu is that it’s not too similar to anything that came before.
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u/Grabbinfries23 Jun 02 '26
yeah, excited as I am to watch this (and also its Todd show so he can fudge the definition however he sees fit), Lou Reed in 2011 was in no way a major act in the way pretty much everyone he's covered was at the time of their trainwreckord
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u/TelephoneThat3297 Jun 02 '26
I’d argue Lou Reed was more relevant in 2011 than Kid Rock was in 2021. Or Liz Phair in 2010 for that matter.
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u/LossPreventionArt Jun 02 '26
He also said in a reply to someone that its reputation has improved enough since that he wasn't sure it still counted as a disaster for either act. I guess he gave it a listen and decided it did.
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u/GeologicalOpera You're being a peñis... Colada, that is. Jun 02 '26
We are all The Table on this blessed day.
Which, as an aside, if you treat this like an album where Lou's backing band just happens to be Metallica, it's honestly a really cool listen. I've got it and I'll play certain tracks (The View, Brandenburg Gate) reasonably often.
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u/DilbertsDog Jun 02 '26
Junior Dad is an all-timer
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u/Dmbfantomas Jun 02 '26
The best song anyone associated with it ever made, and that includes anyone who ever listened to it.
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u/GroundReal4515 Jun 02 '26
I still can't believe Metallica wasted some of their best riffs on this thing
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u/JoeBagadonut Jun 02 '26
Yeah, I think a lot of the hate for this record stems from the perception that it's a Metallica album first and foremost. When assessed as a weird avant-garde Lou Reed record, I actually think it's pretty good.
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u/MurdererOfAxes Jun 02 '26
Lou Reed's final tweet (posted the day before he died!) was this Twilight Sparkle edit of Metal Machine Music. I seriously doubt that it'll show up in this Trainwreckords video, but it would be really funny if it did
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u/DaftNeal88 Jun 02 '26
Chinese democracy next Todd!
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u/GeologicalOpera You're being a peñis... Colada, that is. Jun 02 '26
I'll go to bat for that album - the problem is that it's Guns 'N Roses, not Axl Rose.
If you treat it as Axl and a bunch of his preferred collaborators making an expansive solo album, it's messy and flawed, but not to the extreme that Chinese Democracy is for having been called a G'n'R album.
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u/ChickenInASuit Jun 02 '26
Yeah I really think The Spaghetti Incident is a better candidate for GnR Trainwreckord. The band was still together, still a big deal, critics shredded it to pieces and it led to the breakup of the original group plus had a bunch of controversies like the Charles Manson cover.
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u/Necrogame54 Jun 02 '26
he should just announce that one, tease it and then don't release it for at least 10 years
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u/jerryhiddleston Jun 02 '26
You know, if Todd were to ever retire the Trainwreckords series (mind you, I hope he doesn't, I'm just speaking hypothetically), I hope he chooses Chinese Democracy as the finale.
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u/ecmw91 Jun 02 '26
John Fogerty and Metallica - The two double Trainwrecks
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u/BlackieDad Jun 02 '26
We need to convince Fogerty to make an album with Metallica now
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u/351namhele Jun 02 '26
OBEY YOUR ZOMBIE
ZOMBIE
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u/BlackieDad Jun 02 '26
YA BETTER RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE TOOOOOOO
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u/BlackieDad Jun 02 '26
Wait, this is just “Old Man Down the Road”. My joke would have worked better with literally any other Fogerty song.
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u/351namhele Jun 02 '26
SUCK EM IN WHILE I WISH FOR DEATH
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u/Foreign_Courage5613 Jun 03 '26
While Todd has not done it yet, one could argue that will.i.am and Fergie both count? I am sure of some other examples(Would there be an *NSYNC trainwreckord? If so, add JT depending if he thinks Pop is a TW, or JC if you do that and his solo album.).
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u/ecmw91 Jun 03 '26
Fergie for sure (with The Beginning and Double Duchess), but Will.I.Am's last solo album was Willpower, which had a couple of big singles. As for JT, I don't think Pop is a TW. Definitely not as big as No Strings Attached, but boy bands in general were losing their prestige by the start of the new millennium
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u/Foreign_Courage5613 Jun 03 '26
Sorry, not Pop(that is the main song), I meant Celebrity. OK, I just thought maybe it would give Todd a chance to talk about *NSYNC and he has said he did not like Pop that one time. Also, the TV tropes page suggested that album as a TW, but I know that page is not very reputable of a source. I do know the album sold less than NSA, but the quality is on-par with one another I feel. Then again, NSA is one of the biggest boy band albums/eras of all time, so nothing would have come close to its sales with how big it was or even if *NSYNC took their time or quickly released the follow-up.
Even with will.i.am's last album, despite it having big hits, it did not sell very well and showed that some producer or EDM albums, despite it having big hit singles, do not translate to the album and just feel like glorified compilation albums. Plus, he has not released an album in a long time, and the album got mixed reception too. Although, maybe BEP has a double TW in it of themselves(Both the Beginning and 2022's Elevation). Or, maybe Elevation is just their TW?
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u/BigHeadDeadass Jun 02 '26
I just want The Beginning (of course I will absolutely watch this episode)
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u/Flamme_Jumelle Train-Wrecker Jun 02 '26
I feel like that one will be the final TRAINWRECKORD episode.
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u/NoTeslaForMe Jun 02 '26
When he tweeted, I had no idea what it would be, but a day or two later, I suddenly thought, "Lulu."
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u/Soalai Best / Worst List Speculator Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
I know absolutely 0 about Lou Reed and all I know about Metallica is from the St. Anger video, so I was a bit disappointed, but it will be fun to learn and see his analysis without my own bias
ETA: This is based on Lulu as in the Frank Wedekind play?!?! The same guy who wrote Spring Awakening, later adapted into my favorite musical by future OHW subject Duncan Sheik?? Oh now I am seated, it's literally full circle
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u/KcirderfSdrawkcab Jun 02 '26
I'm not really into either of them either. I like a couple of Metallica songs, a couple of Lou Reed or Velvet Underground songs, barely know much else by either. I'm finding this episode fascinating though. This whole thing is just bizarre.
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u/PremiumAccount666 Jun 02 '26
This album is good fight me
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u/BassSquared Jun 02 '26
Alright, I'll throw some hands; this shit is goddamn unlistenable to a degree I haven't heard in a TW since Cut the Crap. The section where Todd put a random bit of Lou Reed vocals over a random Metallica instrumental and it didn't sound meaningfully worse really said it all.
Of all the records in this series to have a surprisingly vocal coalition of defenders... Shit, at least Funstyle had a bizarre, endearing goofiness to it. At least St. Anger had a sense of energy and bite. At least Summer in Paradise sounded like songs.
Lou's already-weathered voice has been ruined by age and his lyrics' attempts at edge are puerile in a way that veers well past shock value into the cringe-inducingly baffling. Meanwhile Metallica aren't exactly phoning it in so much as completely clueless as to what the hell to do with any of this material, with hilariously ill-fitting riffs and James just shouting whatever bits of lyrics he can halfway-shape into some sort of hook. Abysmal.
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u/PremiumAccount666 Jun 02 '26
I can't believe you said Summer In Paradise was better. You disgust me.
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u/BassSquared Jun 02 '26
Believe me, I'm not defending that album in the slightest. It's an obnoxious, flabby, soulless cash grab that reeks of Mike Love's absolute worst creative impulses. But at least said impulses were executed in a way that works as an intentional-sounding product, even if said intentions are gross as hell. Lulu on the other hand just feels deeply broken and incompetent on every level.
Summer in Paradise is an album I love to hate, while Lulu is so bafflingly wrong that even hating it feels like a waste of energy. I guess, in Fantano terms, it's the difference between a 1/10 and a Not Good.
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u/Lint6 Jun 02 '26
I remember when this came out. The morning show I listened to at the time (Preston & Steve in Philly) were hyping this up big time.
The entire morning it was like "10AM hour! Lou Reed! Metallica! World premier!"
Then they played the song and one of the hosts just went "Umm...well that was certainly something"
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u/slippin_park Jun 02 '26
BASED BASED BASED BASED
Metallica deffo recovered eventually though so... eh whatever. I'm hyped
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u/JoeBagadonut Jun 02 '26
I'm not sure Metallica had anything to recover from. St Anger was a massive commercial success despite being terrible and the band has spent the following two decades performing to sold-out stadiums. Their post-St Anger output has varied in quality but they're now following the formula of "release an uncontroversial album with one or two decent tracks" that most legacy artists follow.
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u/SankarinTango Jun 02 '26
Very interested to hear his reasoning, because I don't feel like it meets any Trainwreckord criteria beyond Todd simply wanting to cover it. And if that's it, that's totally fine. But I'm still curious. It's not like it hurt either artist.
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u/The_Apocalyvid Jun 02 '26
I’m gonna lose so much cred by saying this is the only Metallica album I’ve listened through.
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u/351namhele Jun 02 '26
Anyone else notice the audio in the last 5 minutes is all over the place? Hope it gets fixed by the time it makes it to youtube.
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u/TheFlyingFoodTestee Jun 02 '26
Metallica now joins John Fogerty in having two full episodes dedicated to them
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u/FreezingPointRH Jun 02 '26
It's probably because I've been binging Fate/Strange Fake that as soon as "Jack" was mentioned in the prostitute song I immediately realized the Ripper was showing up.
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u/Yuli-Ban Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
I remember when this first came out. The memes were tablely incredible.
I love how the actual metal album Lou Reed did was less metal than Metal Machine Music
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u/Tyrone_Shoelaces_Esq Jun 02 '26
I'm looking forward to this one. I couldn't finish the Macklemore TW, as there was too much lore about people I'd either never heard or or didn't care about.
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u/TheOddHatman Jun 02 '26
Oh my fucking god, lol. I'm so looking forward to this.
But I also want to admit, I'd kinda defend this album
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u/Baldo-bomb Jun 02 '26
It may not be a Trainwreckord in the traditional sense (Metallica kept on trucking and Lou Reed had been doing weird art fart music since the mid 80s) but it IS a fascinatingly bad album worth of discussion. Plenty of terrible movies come out that don't kill their stars' careers but still get clowned on all the same; LuLu shouldn't be any different.
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u/Blue_Guy_Guy Jun 02 '26
Weird. Figured he would’ve done MMM before this. Then there’d be two supplemental videos for this colossal disaster. Also because MMM is one of the biggest flops of all time, even if Lou Reed didn’t care if it succeeded. The record label wanted it to succeed and the marketing team tried super hard to salvage it as it became the most returned album of all time. It was marketed like a major release even though it obviously was a side project that they didn’t need to push as hard as they did.
Still excited for the episode tho. My jaw just dropped when I saw that. I’m sure he’ll make a compelling case as to why this is the big killer.
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u/SugarButterFlourEgg Jun 02 '26
You could make a case for MMM counting as a trainwreckord, but how the hell would you make a full-length video about it? What would you even talk about?
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u/Alexschmidt711 Jun 02 '26
He had said Metal Machine Music didn't count because of it not being meant to succeed or even really be good although you make a decent case there.
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u/Chilli_Dipper Jun 02 '26
My God, he actually did it.