Lou Reed - Berlin: Live At St. Ann's Warehouse

Though it was dismissed as morbid and self-indulgent upon its initial 1973 release, critics and audiences alike have come to view Lou Reed's unquestionably grandiose concept album, Berlin, as one of the high points of his solo career. The album's narrative arc traces the trajectory of a doomed, defiantly self-destructive romance in the modern German city, and pits dark, cabaret influenced orchestration against Reed's deadpan vocals to remarkably chilling effect. The album's bleak, incisive lyrics and unapologetically melodramatic atmosphere would prove influential in the years to come.