New book to explore the music of Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground

The music of Lou Reed will be the subject of a new book coming this spring.

Sweet, Wild and Vicious: Listening to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground is author Jim Higgins' look at the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer's catalog of music. In it, he shares "descriptions, details, analysis and appraisals" of the music Reed made from the '60s until his death in 2013.

"Jim Higgins takes the reader on a long walk through one of the most complicated, controversial and influential of rock oeuvres in terms that are, in turn, scholarly, hip, informative and personal," says Trouser Press' Ira Robbins. "The unstated goal of books like this is to make you go back and listen anew to records you thought you knew front to back; Sweet, Wild and Vicious achieves that and more."

Sweet, Wild and Vicious: Listening to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground will be released in paperback and eBook on April 19; it's available for preorder now.

Lou Reed's music is also being celebrated with an upcoming tribute album, The Power of the Heart: A Tribute to Lou Reed, which will be released on vinyl for Record Store Day on April 20, with CD and digital release happening the same day. It features covers of Reed tunes by the likes of Keith Richards, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Rufus Wainwright, Rickie Lee Jones and others.