On The Shelf 093: Iggy and the Stooges
Jun. 28th, 2013 07:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23The Stooges' career still is taking weird twists and turns. The "Fun House" era Stooges reunited in 2003. When guitarist Ron Ashton died in 2009 and Iggy needed a replacement, he did what he did 40 years ago, he reached out to James Williamson.
Williamson is a recently retired stockbroker who was wondering what he was going to do during his golden years.
So like with Raw Power, Iggy has reached out to Jim Williamson for his guitar needs.
The Stooges Mk 1 reunion album The Weirdness had certain expectations and was a critical failure. The recently released Stooges Mk 2 reunion album Ready to Die arrives with a different set of expectations and has gotten mostly a positive response (allmusic gives it four stars) and although it sounds weirder than what it really is, it's the Stooges highest charting album in the US(#96, besting the debut (#106) and Raw Power (#182).
So where does Ready to Die land? It might not be Raw Power but has the potential of being a great shambolic garage rock disc (I have also been listening to the Oblivians reunion record, so there's another example that it can be done) and even if it isn't that, it has the potential to at least be a good iggy Pop record (I am one of the few who actually really liked The Weirdness).
I find Ready to Die a big disappointment. Iggy goes 'big,loud, and dumb' and on paper, that should work, but at this point, I think Iggy is better when he stretches his art. It is hard to explain, but "Job" (I got a job/but it don't pay sh*t) feels 180 degrees away from "I Got a Right." It shouldn't be, right? Four decades on, though, what makes Iggy interesting has changed,
It's not Williamson's fault, though , who has some tearing guitar leads. It's just that Iggy seems in self-parody. "Double Ds" which is a song about what you think it is, should give you some clue, and is (unfortunately) probably as good as it gets. Closing track "The Departed" is introspective and shows what the album could have been, but overall, this is an album best forgotten (which isn't to say Pop & Williamson
shouldn't call it a day, they just need to come up with something better).
Here's "Job" (Uncensored**Warning) from a trip to Colbert.
Williamson is a recently retired stockbroker who was wondering what he was going to do during his golden years.
So like with Raw Power, Iggy has reached out to Jim Williamson for his guitar needs.
The Stooges Mk 1 reunion album The Weirdness had certain expectations and was a critical failure. The recently released Stooges Mk 2 reunion album Ready to Die arrives with a different set of expectations and has gotten mostly a positive response (allmusic gives it four stars) and although it sounds weirder than what it really is, it's the Stooges highest charting album in the US(#96, besting the debut (#106) and Raw Power (#182).
So where does Ready to Die land? It might not be Raw Power but has the potential of being a great shambolic garage rock disc (I have also been listening to the Oblivians reunion record, so there's another example that it can be done) and even if it isn't that, it has the potential to at least be a good iggy Pop record (I am one of the few who actually really liked The Weirdness).
I find Ready to Die a big disappointment. Iggy goes 'big,loud, and dumb' and on paper, that should work, but at this point, I think Iggy is better when he stretches his art. It is hard to explain, but "Job" (I got a job/but it don't pay sh*t) feels 180 degrees away from "I Got a Right." It shouldn't be, right? Four decades on, though, what makes Iggy interesting has changed,
It's not Williamson's fault, though , who has some tearing guitar leads. It's just that Iggy seems in self-parody. "Double Ds" which is a song about what you think it is, should give you some clue, and is (unfortunately) probably as good as it gets. Closing track "The Departed" is introspective and shows what the album could have been, but overall, this is an album best forgotten (which isn't to say Pop & Williamson
shouldn't call it a day, they just need to come up with something better).
Here's "Job" (Uncensored**Warning) from a trip to Colbert.
