In what is sure to be one of the most talked-about alliances of the year, LOU REED & METALLICA's Lulu album will be released by Warner Bros. Records on November 1st in North America (October 31st elsewhere).

A deluxe version of Lulu will be released in a tube-shaped container (13cm x 1.24m), and will include a two-CD digipack package, a large 1.2m x 1.6m poster (with song lyrics), and three photographs by Anton Corbijn (50cm x 50.8cm).

The collaboration recently posted the first complete Lulu song online. Check out 'The View' via YouTube below:

The complete Lulu tracklisting is as follows:

'Brandenburg Gate' (4:19)

'The View' (5:17)

'Pumping Blood' (7:24)

'Mistress Dread' (6:52)

'Iced Honey' (4:36)

'Cheat On Me' (11:26)

'Frustration' (8:33)

'Little Dog' (8:01)

'Dragon' (11:08)

'Junior Dad' (19:28)

The lyrics for 'Cheat On Me' can be found below:

Why do you cheat on me

Why do I cheat on thee

Why do I cheat on me

Why do I cheat on me

I have a passionate heart

It can tear us apart

I have the loves of many men

But I don’t love any of them

Why do I cheat on me

You have your feelings

I have mine

I spit upon you and change my mind

I have many hearts to break

And many, many, many more to take

Let the light of stars pour out

Like a candle in a spout

Let the wick recede and break

Let the starlight radiate

Why do you cheat on me

Why do I cheat on me

Why do I cheat on thee

Why do I desecrate me

Why do I piss my dreams

That’s because that’s what it is

I have the drive

I got the scope

If I, if I, if I, could I give you a rope

Your love means zero to me

I’m a passionateless wave upon the sea

Passionateless wave upon the sea

Why, why, why

Do you cheat on me

Why, why, why

Do I cheat on thee

Oh why, do I cheat on me

Why do I cheat on myself

Well I got nobody else

I’m only young once

I want to taste it all and have fun

I have no real feelings in my soul

Where most have passion I got a hole

I really got nobody else

I want lovers like the rain

So many of them, so much the same

You say you love me, I know it’s true

But I, I, I don’t love you

Why do I cheat on me

Why do you cheat on me

Your love means zero to me

A passionateless wave

Your love means zero to me

Lulu was co-produced by Reed, Metallica, Hal Willner who has produced albums for Reed, MARIANNE FAITHFUL, and LAURIE ANDERSON, among others and Greg Fidelman. Fidelman also mixed the record.

The idea for these two giants of modern music to work together was born after the 25th anniversary Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame concerts in New York City in October 2009. Metallica -singer/guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Rob Trujillo - played with Reed on VELVET UNDERGROUND classics, 'Sweet Jane' and 'White Light/White Heat'.

"We knew from then that we were made for each other," Reed says.

After that triumphant performance, Reed suggested they all make a record together. At first they planned to record an album of Reed's older material, what Ulrich describes as "some of Lou's lost jewels - songs that he felt he'd like to give a second spin, and we could do whatever it is we do to some of those songs." That idea "hung in the air for a couple of months." Then, a week or two before that session was to begin, "Lou called up and said, 'Listen, I have this other idea.'"

That idea was to record a series of songs Reed had written for American avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson and German theater group the Berliner Ensemble's production of the Lulu Plays, which premiered in Aprilat theTheatre am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, founded by Bertolt Brecht. The songs are inspired by German expressionist Frank Wedekind's early 20th century plays Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box, and were a rewrite of Edgar Allan Poe's, The Raven, which emerged as a graphic novel on Fantagraphics Press.

"We were very interested in working with Lou," says Hetfield. "I had these giant question marks: What's it going to be like? What's going to happen? So it was great when he sent us the lyrics for the Lulu body of work. It was something we could sink our teeth into. I could take off my singer and lyricist hat and concentrate on the music part. These were very potent lyrics, with a soundscape behind them for atmosphere. Lars and I sat there with an acoustic and let this blank canvas take us where it needed to go. It was a great gift, to be asked to stamp 'tallica on it. And that's what we did."
"We had to bring Lulu to life in a sophisticated way, using rock," Reed says. "And the hardest power rock you could come up with would have to be Metallica. They live on that planet. We played together, and I knew it: dream come true. This is the best thing I ever did. And I did it with the best group I could possibly find. By definition, everybody involved was honest. This has come into the world pure. We pushed as far as we possibly could within the realms of reality."
"It's definitely not a Metallica album, or a Lou Reed album," adds Hammett. "It's something else. It's a new animal, a hybrid."

A short EPK for the release can be found below:

Be among the first to hear Lulu at an intimate listening session with Lou Reed and Metallica on Monday, October 24th. The Metallica Club and Bowers & Wilkins Sound Sessions will be giving away passes to the small private gathering in New York City and you could join them there.

Enter to win passes and an opportunity to meet the guys at this location. Metallica Club members can also enter at Metallica.com after logging in to the Members Area.

For more details visit Loureedmetallica.com.