On the Shelf 163: Iggy Pop
Apr. 13th, 2016 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23On the heels of Blackstar and Bowie's death, Iggy Pop's new album has some emotional heaviness to it. It also has the extra attention of pairing Iggy up with one of the most important artists in hard rock in the 21st Century Josh Homme.
Listening to Post Pop Depression, the first impression I get is what an odd pop star Iggy is. As the third of the great Alt-Rock Godfathers (and now the only one still alive), Iggy generally trails behind.
While this is a very good (I will say great) album, I am struck by what Iggy has to work with. His voice is weird, his lyrics puerile. While that was perfect for the Stooges, it probably makes things that much tougher. Yet, even the best punk rock artists (commercially and critically)cannot put together a successful half-century career. The only exception that I can think of is the Ramones, but you can also argue that they just re-made the same album again and again. The best of the CBGB scene largely have been quiet in their decades of work (Smith, Verlaine, Hell). As far as fast loud, maybe you could make a case for Ian MacKaye or Bob Mould, but even the best pale in terms of output (Rollins, Keith Morris, Biafra, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Mike Watt). Side to side, few have hit the heights like Iggy.
Much has been made that partnering with Josh Homme is as genius as pairing with Bowie. While, it's hard to compare PPD with those landmark albums, The Idiot and Lust for Life. It's hard especially without a single that is close to par with some of the best Iggy ever recorded. That said, I would say it's in the conversation.
So while, most reviews have compared Pop and Homme to Pop and Bowie, I am going to take it just a bit farther. Pop has made a career of finding the right collaborator at the right time.
Which is no different than Bowie or Reed. Bowie gets credit for his artistic vision, smooth voice, and knack for pushing the envelope, but he always found the right partner for many years (Visconti, Ronson, Eno, Alomar, Fripp). Reed may have an odd voice, but his lyrics are worthy of his image as the great Modern American Novelist in song, and similarly, his collaborators over the years are a whos who (Cale, Bowie, Ronson, Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner, Quine, Wasserman)
So it is with Pop. We know about Lust and The Idiot, but I also want to put in a good word for New Values (with James Williamson) perhaps the most underrated punk album ever.
So there's some missteps (with Chris Stein from Blondie and famously Tommy Boyce (of Boyce and Hart of Monkees fame) until we get to 86's Blah Blah Blah
I am split on BBB (which was Bowie's return). It has not aged well, which is exacerbated by trying to be a Top 40 crossover. It is the Iggy Pop I first heard, so that may be part of it. But it's not all bad either, and for proof, i will submit that Bowie's Real Wild Child still shows up everywhere.
Iggy tried the next few years to cash in on being the forefather not of new wave but of metal and hard rock. 88's Instinct paired Pop with Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols and producer Bill Laswell. Instinct has become Pop's Cut the Crap an album that has been all cut from any mention in his discography. I actually like Instinct. Pop has made a few albums of Dumb Loud Rock, and Instinct is dumb at its best.
Instinct was quickly forgotten when 1990's Brick by Brick came out. Pop finally found a collaborator worthy of Bowie in Don Was. BbB is a great album artistically and put Pop on the map commercially. It wasn't the hard rocking single "Butt Town" but a pop duet "Candy" that made another evergreen hit for Iggy.
For my money, the best post-Bowie Iggy album is 93's American Caesar- a statement much like Reed's New York in taking a punk legend and modernizing his brand. Caesar was produced by Malcolm Burn who generally worked with roots rock artists like Chris Whitley, Emmylou Harris, the Neville Brothers, Blue Rodeo, Bob Dylan, and John Mellencamp, and paired Pop with an unknown guitarist named Eric Schermerhorn who has since went on with stints in They Might Be Giants and The The.
From there, the next 20 years are not much to speak about (and I love me some Iggy). Iggy has time and time again went back to Big Loud and Dumb. It's ironic then, that Iggy's best moments are when he is being nuanced.
Pop went back to Was for Avenue B, and album that quite a few like, that pairs him with strange bedfellows in Martin Medeski and Wood. I am not a big fan of the album, but it is surely better than the one and a half stars Allmusic gives it.
There's the Stooges reunions of course. I liked the '07 collaboration with the Ashetons The Weirdness while I thought the Williamson-lineup Stooges reunion (2013's Ready to Die) was largely unnecessary. Many critics will reverse my judgements, saying RtD is the better album, but all generally agree that while they have some good songs, neither LP is essential.
Which brings us to his last two albums. Having focused mostly on Big Loud Dumb Rock, on 2009's Preliminaries, Pop took an unusual turn and presented himself in the style of someone like Serge Gainsbourg- the experienced decadent artist. It works reasonably well on Preliminaires which is steeped heavily in New Orleans and French influences and has Jelly Roll Morton as one of its touchpoints.
2012's Apres is barely an LP in length but continues that in a series of inspired covers choices. There's Sinatra and Piaf and Gainsbourg (of course) and the Beatles (Pop's cover of "Michelle" is particularly inspired). Apres is for diehard fans only (no wonder Virgin did not want it) but Preliminaries is worthy of a listen. Pop's collaborator on these albums are producer Hal Cragin, another person with strong ties to They Might Be Giants.
In any case nothing in the last 20 years of Ig's career is like Post Pop Depression. Ostensibly, set up as a "final" record like Blackstar, perhaps at age 68, it will be, though Ig seems to have Keith Richards like invincibility.
Teaming up Pop with members of one of the most progressive of hard rock bands Queens of the Stone Age and the drummer from a band that started as a hype but turned out to have staying power, the Arctic Monkeys.
Homme plays to Pop's strengths, where Iggy needs to just show up and be 100% Iggy. The lyrics are still childish, but with the defiance and determination on display, it is pulled off like only Iggy can. What makes the album great is that instead of it just being a bunch of three and four minute singles, the band draws them out to five and six minutes and make every moment count.
If there is a complaint, it's that there's no great single. "Gardenia" is being played as a single and has been embraced by Adult Alternative stations, probably his biggest single in 20 years. It's not a great single in terms of "Lust for Life' or even "Nightclubbing".
It is a good solid song, and it's one of eight songs that are solid and worthy of repeated revisits (yes, there's nine songs. I think "Vulture" is a misstep. I know many critics have said that is their favorite song on the record. It's Iggy at it's Iggiest, but it's just Big and Dumb. This record again confirms Iggy is at his best when hes ambitious)
The gem of the album is the closer "Paraguay", which seemingly is a song where Iggy suggests he would just be happy to quit and move to South America. While it is not a radio type single, it's a rock masterpiece where everything comes together. The album has been building up with Pop melancholic and rage with perfect accompaniment by Homme and co., and here it attains its apex.
Listening to Post Pop Depression, the first impression I get is what an odd pop star Iggy is. As the third of the great Alt-Rock Godfathers (and now the only one still alive), Iggy generally trails behind.
While this is a very good (I will say great) album, I am struck by what Iggy has to work with. His voice is weird, his lyrics puerile. While that was perfect for the Stooges, it probably makes things that much tougher. Yet, even the best punk rock artists (commercially and critically)cannot put together a successful half-century career. The only exception that I can think of is the Ramones, but you can also argue that they just re-made the same album again and again. The best of the CBGB scene largely have been quiet in their decades of work (Smith, Verlaine, Hell). As far as fast loud, maybe you could make a case for Ian MacKaye or Bob Mould, but even the best pale in terms of output (Rollins, Keith Morris, Biafra, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, Mike Watt). Side to side, few have hit the heights like Iggy.
Much has been made that partnering with Josh Homme is as genius as pairing with Bowie. While, it's hard to compare PPD with those landmark albums, The Idiot and Lust for Life. It's hard especially without a single that is close to par with some of the best Iggy ever recorded. That said, I would say it's in the conversation.
So while, most reviews have compared Pop and Homme to Pop and Bowie, I am going to take it just a bit farther. Pop has made a career of finding the right collaborator at the right time.
Which is no different than Bowie or Reed. Bowie gets credit for his artistic vision, smooth voice, and knack for pushing the envelope, but he always found the right partner for many years (Visconti, Ronson, Eno, Alomar, Fripp). Reed may have an odd voice, but his lyrics are worthy of his image as the great Modern American Novelist in song, and similarly, his collaborators over the years are a whos who (Cale, Bowie, Ronson, Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner, Quine, Wasserman)
So it is with Pop. We know about Lust and The Idiot, but I also want to put in a good word for New Values (with James Williamson) perhaps the most underrated punk album ever.
So there's some missteps (with Chris Stein from Blondie and famously Tommy Boyce (of Boyce and Hart of Monkees fame) until we get to 86's Blah Blah Blah
I am split on BBB (which was Bowie's return). It has not aged well, which is exacerbated by trying to be a Top 40 crossover. It is the Iggy Pop I first heard, so that may be part of it. But it's not all bad either, and for proof, i will submit that Bowie's Real Wild Child still shows up everywhere.
Iggy tried the next few years to cash in on being the forefather not of new wave but of metal and hard rock. 88's Instinct paired Pop with Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols and producer Bill Laswell. Instinct has become Pop's Cut the Crap an album that has been all cut from any mention in his discography. I actually like Instinct. Pop has made a few albums of Dumb Loud Rock, and Instinct is dumb at its best.
Instinct was quickly forgotten when 1990's Brick by Brick came out. Pop finally found a collaborator worthy of Bowie in Don Was. BbB is a great album artistically and put Pop on the map commercially. It wasn't the hard rocking single "Butt Town" but a pop duet "Candy" that made another evergreen hit for Iggy.
For my money, the best post-Bowie Iggy album is 93's American Caesar- a statement much like Reed's New York in taking a punk legend and modernizing his brand. Caesar was produced by Malcolm Burn who generally worked with roots rock artists like Chris Whitley, Emmylou Harris, the Neville Brothers, Blue Rodeo, Bob Dylan, and John Mellencamp, and paired Pop with an unknown guitarist named Eric Schermerhorn who has since went on with stints in They Might Be Giants and The The.
From there, the next 20 years are not much to speak about (and I love me some Iggy). Iggy has time and time again went back to Big Loud and Dumb. It's ironic then, that Iggy's best moments are when he is being nuanced.
Pop went back to Was for Avenue B, and album that quite a few like, that pairs him with strange bedfellows in Martin Medeski and Wood. I am not a big fan of the album, but it is surely better than the one and a half stars Allmusic gives it.
There's the Stooges reunions of course. I liked the '07 collaboration with the Ashetons The Weirdness while I thought the Williamson-lineup Stooges reunion (2013's Ready to Die) was largely unnecessary. Many critics will reverse my judgements, saying RtD is the better album, but all generally agree that while they have some good songs, neither LP is essential.
Which brings us to his last two albums. Having focused mostly on Big Loud Dumb Rock, on 2009's Preliminaries, Pop took an unusual turn and presented himself in the style of someone like Serge Gainsbourg- the experienced decadent artist. It works reasonably well on Preliminaires which is steeped heavily in New Orleans and French influences and has Jelly Roll Morton as one of its touchpoints.
2012's Apres is barely an LP in length but continues that in a series of inspired covers choices. There's Sinatra and Piaf and Gainsbourg (of course) and the Beatles (Pop's cover of "Michelle" is particularly inspired). Apres is for diehard fans only (no wonder Virgin did not want it) but Preliminaries is worthy of a listen. Pop's collaborator on these albums are producer Hal Cragin, another person with strong ties to They Might Be Giants.
In any case nothing in the last 20 years of Ig's career is like Post Pop Depression. Ostensibly, set up as a "final" record like Blackstar, perhaps at age 68, it will be, though Ig seems to have Keith Richards like invincibility.
Teaming up Pop with members of one of the most progressive of hard rock bands Queens of the Stone Age and the drummer from a band that started as a hype but turned out to have staying power, the Arctic Monkeys.
Homme plays to Pop's strengths, where Iggy needs to just show up and be 100% Iggy. The lyrics are still childish, but with the defiance and determination on display, it is pulled off like only Iggy can. What makes the album great is that instead of it just being a bunch of three and four minute singles, the band draws them out to five and six minutes and make every moment count.
If there is a complaint, it's that there's no great single. "Gardenia" is being played as a single and has been embraced by Adult Alternative stations, probably his biggest single in 20 years. It's not a great single in terms of "Lust for Life' or even "Nightclubbing".
It is a good solid song, and it's one of eight songs that are solid and worthy of repeated revisits (yes, there's nine songs. I think "Vulture" is a misstep. I know many critics have said that is their favorite song on the record. It's Iggy at it's Iggiest, but it's just Big and Dumb. This record again confirms Iggy is at his best when hes ambitious)
The gem of the album is the closer "Paraguay", which seemingly is a song where Iggy suggests he would just be happy to quit and move to South America. While it is not a radio type single, it's a rock masterpiece where everything comes together. The album has been building up with Pop melancholic and rage with perfect accompaniment by Homme and co., and here it attains its apex.
