Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression (2016)

Iggy Pop- Post Pop Depression (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

Jim Morrison died some decades ago, Lou Reed a couple of years ago, and Bowie just a few weeks ago, the point is that it seems that Iggy Pop musical predecessors seem to suddenly disappear from the Earth's surface, so, is Iggy the next to leave us? I hope not, although the Pop has lived a rough life, the man looks healthier and in his best shape ever, just when the Pop seemed decided to follow a crooner like career with his Preliminaries and Apres records, he bounced violently and resurrected his Stooges with the Ashton brothers and then with James Williamson, I guess there's little for Iggy to do, and he is basically doing it here on Post Pop Depression, his most recent musical adventure.

But as usual, Pop is not coming alone, in the past he was known for choosing great musical partners, Carlos Alomar, David Bowie and the Sales Brothers to name a few, this time the Pop is coming along with big names in what he has declared to be his last record, with Queens of the Stone Age main man Josh Hommes and guitarist Dean Fertita, add to the lineup Artic Monkeys drummer Matt Helder and you already have a very powerful team.

Instead of dwelling in the complex universe of apparently irreconcilable collaborations like Scott Walker and Sunn O))), or Lou Reed with Metallica, Post Pop Depression is a more friendly conglomerate, it isn't exactly classic Iggy Pop, it is not as publicized a return to Lust for Life, but more like Pop jamming with QUOTSA, you can hear the thunderous drumming and the low booming bass of Hommes' band, and Iggy simply drifting into kind of well-known territory, heavy music but not too proto punk, with a bland start on Break Into Your Heart, weak on guitars and with Pop showing why Bowie admired him so much.

First single doesn't even sound like a Pop song, it's too relaxed for Lust for Life and too upbeat for Preliminares, it sounds more like Pop approach the accessible sound of Bowie, although Hommes and Fertita are a little lost here, there's some guitar fire on American Valhalla, but not enough as one would wish, In the Lobby gives a little ups and downs for Pop to get a little more intense, but again, restrain seems to be the approach, it puzzles me a little, I guess Pop most have though that he was adding some volume to his Preliminaries-Apres songs, perhaps he was just happy singing over QUOTSA songs, I don't know, but in reality this doesn't sounds as good as expected, to make matters worse there's even a dance oriented song called Sunday, which makes no sense if you consider the avant garde sounds Pop dud decades ago on songs like Nightclubbing, from Iggy's classic 1977 landmark record The Idiot.

Two sadly known events seem to be permeating thru this quite depressing record, the death of Bowie, a great friend and collaborator of Pop, and the violent terrorist at Le Bataclan in Paris last November, while Eagles of Death Metal, a band with whom Hommes' has collaborated before, in the end, things looked better on paper than on real life, there's little memorable tunes on Post Pop Depression and what seemed to be a great idea about the grey state of the world by two musical giants, simply ends up as an embarrassing chapter in both careers, Hommes sooner or later will return with a vengeance, I sincerely hope this is not Pop's last.