Iggy Pop
Préliminaires
Astralwerks
8/10
Now, I understand that many artists like to expand their range and push themselves and all that, but jeeeeeeez. Fucking Iggy Pop. So, Iggy reads The Possibility of an Island, a book by Frenchman Michel Houellebecq, and decides to write a hypothetical score for it. So far, I’m all for it; it sounds like a fun and novel project. What ensues is the Godfather of Punk dipping his toes into the realms of early jazz, but swimming in and out of French. I don’t speak French, knock it off [Editor’s note: HA! I do. Take that bitch!].
A lot of Préliminaires reminds me of Closing Time era Tom Waits, except when Pop tries his hardest at crooning, he comes off more as a really smarmy vampire than a jazz troudadour. Best part: the jazz horn section on “King of the Dogs.” Worst part: “What is a dog, but a machine for loving?”-from “A Machine for Loving.”
Ew. Dude. Ew. Iggy, I love you, but ya gotta work this out a little more, man.
–Jonathan Yost