Lulu received polarized reviews from critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics,
Lulu received an
average score of 45, based on 31 reviews. Staff reviewer Joseph Viney of Sputnikmusic rated it one and a half out of five and commented: "The fallout from this could have dire consequences. A lot of people, already placing Metallica at the best seat in the house at the
Last Chance Saloon have now called last orders. It's genuinely difficult to guess what their next move will be. As for Reed, his legacy, whatever that means in his case, is cemented and this will have no real effect on him."
Pitchfork critic Stuart Berman assigned the album a 1.0 rating, writing, "for all the hilarity that ought to ensue here,
Lulu is a frustratingly noble failure. Audacious to the extreme, but exhaustingly tedious as a result, its few interesting ideas are stretched out beyond the point of utility and pounded into submission." Reviewer Julian Marszalek of
The Quietus gave it a very negative review, commenting that "the effect is that of Lou Reed ranting over some Metallica demos that were never intended for human consumption." Marszalek summarized the review by suggesting that time spent listening to
Lulu could have been better spent watching grass grow, "or perhaps wanking into a sock." Furthermore, longtime reviewer Don Kaye, who had previously defended Metallica's much-maligned 2003 album
St. Anger, wrote on Blabbermouth.net that "
Lulu is a catastrophic failure on almost every level, a project that could quite possibly do irreparable harm to Metallica's career." The German edition of
Metal Hammer gave it four out of seven stars. The reaction of the reviewer, Metallica biographer
Joel McIver, was mixed. According to McIver, Lou Reed and Metallica had created an "avant-garde theatrical" soundtrack that is "not easy to listen to" and recommendable for Lou Reed fans. However Metallica fans "will mostly ignore
Lulu—and listen to
Master of Puppets". In contrast to the negative reviews, J. R. Moores of
Drowned in Sound gave the album a perfect score of 10 out of 10 and praised it as "the second greatest record ever made in the history of the human ear drum" after
Metal Machine Music. The review was misunderstood to be a joke while the writer stated that every point he mentioned about
Lulu is sincere, saying that it is the most interesting Metallica album and has Lou Reed's most enjoyable lyrics. In a review titled "Metallica and Lou Reed's 'Lulu' Is Actually Excellent", James Parker of
The Atlantic wrote "I don't think the record is crap. In fact I love it... Give
Lulu a shot. Give it another listen. Offer it what Lou would call your 'coagulating heart,' and you will be rewarded." In the British avant-garde music magazine
The Wire,
David Keenan wrote, "Metallica's unrelenting sledgehammer style works as the perfect complement to Reed's vision of compassionless love" and concluded "[a]gainst all the odds,
Lulu functions as the ultimate realisation of Reed's aesthetic of
Metal Machine Music, cruel vulgar, half in love with power and pain but with a bruised, beating heart at its centre."
Uncut gave the record a positive review, singling out the closer "Junior Dad" for praise and calling it "breathtaking" and "astonishing", a "perfect ending to the most extraordinary, passionate and just plain brilliant record either participant has made for a long while."
NME, scoring the record seven out of ten, stating that while it was "gruelling, even by latter Lou Reed standards," the sense of "unrestrained folly" and sheer lack of commercialism made the album feel "important". Additional praise was received for the album when
Lulu reached number nine on
The Wire 'year-end critics' poll. Indeed,
The Wire's Jennifer Lucy Allan commented about the bad reviews: "ultimately, the reaction to it is a testament to Lou Reed's ability to still get up the noses and under the skin of even the most open-minded listeners. He's probably laughing his head off at it all this very minute." Moreover,
Mattin in his review of
Lulu for
Volcanic Tongue agreed when Lou Reed said "This is the best thing ever done by anybody", and he adds: "
Lulu is more Lou Reed than Lou Reed and that surely means that this is the best thing ever done by anybody." In a piece published on the day of Reed's death,
Robert Christgau wrote that
Lulu "probably didn't get enough" "mazel tov" from critics. At Reed's 2015 posthumous induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Reed's widow
Laurie Anderson announced that
David Bowie had referred to
Lulu as Reed's "greatest work".
LCD Soundsystem's
James Murphy later said Bowie had told him
Lulu was "some of the best writing Lou's done. People are making a snap judgment and they aren't
listening."
Response to criticism Reed stated that Metallica fans threatened to shoot him due to the collaboration on
Lulu. In response to this and the overall negative reaction to the album, Reed commented, "I don't have any fans left. After
Metal Machine Music (1975), they all fled. Who cares? I'm essentially in this for the fun of it." Metallica drummer
Lars Ulrich also noted the negative reaction to
Lulu, and stated that he wasn't surprised by the criticism due in part because, "In 1984, when hard-core Metallica fans heard acoustic guitars on '
Fade to Black', there was a nuclear meltdown in the heavy-metal community," and also noted that Reed's poetry is "not for everyone." while Reed stated that the album is for "literate people". Robert Trujillo spoke about the album, saying, "Love it or hate it, it was definitely something that we enjoyed and that we embraced." Following Reed's death, Ulrich wrote the following about
Lulu in
The Guardian: ==Commercial performance==