There's no getting around it, 'Magic and Loss', Lou Reed's sixteenth studio album released in 1992, is NOT a particularly easy listen. While often musically beautiful in an elegantly understated way, the themes of death and the relentless toll it can take on both the dying and ones who love them are both universal and at times uncomfortably personal. Returning guest, Canadian documentary filmmaker Alan Zweig, is here for all of it. “There's a bit of magic in everything And then some loss to even things out”

Songs discussed in this episode: Dorita (The Spirit) - Lou Reed; Pale Blue Eyes, White Light White Heat - The Velvet Underground; Teardrop In The Sand - The Hollywoods; Buffalo Ballet - John Cale; Coney Island Baby - Lou Reed; Save The Last Dance For Me - The Drifters; Dorita (The Spirit), What's Good (The Thesis) - Lou Reed; Stay With Me - Little Jimmy Scott; Power and Glory (The Situation), Magician (Internally), Sword Of Damocles (Externally), Goodby Mass - (In a Chapel Bodily Termination), Cremation (Ashes To Ashes), Dreamin' (Escape), No Chance (Regret), Warrior King (Revenge), Harry's Circumcision (Reverie Gone Astray), Street Hassle, Gassed and Stoned (Loss), Power and Glory, Part II (Magic - Transformation), Magic and Loss (Summation) - Lou Reed; Magician (Lou Reed cover) - Rosanne Cash