Iggy upsets the universe
There seems to be no middle ground with Iggy’s new album, Préliminaires; people seem to either love it or hate it. I’m on the love it side of the fence. Although nothing will ever come close to the raw greatness of the first Stooges disks, this album is as much a “fuck you” to the industry as those albums were. “I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars,” Iggy said about his decision to record an album with more sax then violence.
Préliminaires is influenced by New Orleans jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton, and includes a cover of the 1940’s French jazz standard “Les feuilles mortes” (Autumn Leaves), which Iggy sings in French (“Finally, I can say, ‘Thank God for that junior high French class,’” Ig told Rolling Stone ). There are also spoken-word and acoustic blues tracks on what has to be Iggy’s most diverse collection ever. Everything fits together very nicely, though, even the one guitar driven track, “Nice to be Dead.”
The songs are based on images and ideas from The Possibility of an Island, a 2005 novel by the French writer Michel Houellebecq. A couple of years ago, Iggy was commissioned to write some music for a documentary about Houellebecq. Préliminaires came out of that project.
King of the Dogs.mp3
Iggy has also set up a great Website to accompany Préliminaires, including videos, links to interviews, and information about ordering the deluxe version of the album.
Labels: alt.jazz, new stuff, punk
posted by aikin @ 4:37 PM
5 Comments:
I hate it. Life's too short.
Apologies to the mighty Iggy but, in my humble opinion, the best things he's ever done are as follows:
The Stooges 1st album
Funhouse
Raw Power
Metallic KO
The Idiot
Lust for Life
TV Eye
(All pre-1980...)
Having said that, that IS a very very superb catalogue of work!!! :-)
Though... I haven't heard anything from his new album! It might be his best yet!!! ;-)
I'm just glad Iggy's still around making new music and experimenting. Haven't listened to the new stuff yet, hoping for the best also...
Good list, but i would add the underrated Zombie Birdhouse from '82 right after, followed by New Values and Brick by Brick as my favorite solo albums.
ah, you guys are killin' me!
I don't know what it is about this album, but I am seriously diggin' it.
I should probably go back into the Iggy solo catalog and give some of his stuff another listen - a lot of I didn't care for too much. Maybe my Iggy taste has changed!
We-ell... Having finally gotten round to actually listening to the track posted ("King of the Dogs") I have to say... it's superb! I'll have to check out other tracks from the album and if I like, it'll be my first new Iggy purchase in years and years and years!
btw, here's a fact I like to bore people with... The one and only rock concert I've attended was... Iggy Pop in 1979 (with Glen Matlock in his backing band!) on his 'New Values Tour' of Britain. My hearing didn't recover for about a week!!!
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