{"id":18506,"date":"2016-02-29T09:23:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T09:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=18506"},"modified":"2016-02-29T09:46:30","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T09:46:30","slug":"reasons-to-be-tearful-iggy-pop-returns-with-josh-homme-collaboration-post-pop-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2016\/02\/reasons-to-be-tearful-iggy-pop-returns-with-josh-homme-collaboration-post-pop-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"REASONS TO BE TEARFUL – Iggy Pop Returns With Josh Homme Collaboration ‘Post Pop Depression’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Never one to do anything by halves Iggy Pop has hinted that\u00a0Post Pop Depression\u00a0<\/em>may be his last ever long player.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

If that’s the case, the old devil’s bowing out in some style, having found the perfect songwriting foil in Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

But it’ll be a damned shame, because in these desperate, dull times the world needs an Iggy Pop to give us a good kick up our ripped backsides.<\/p>\n

He’s on great form on this album, the voice is in fine fettle and it’s clear he’s really worked hard on the lyrics.<\/p>\n

Recorded last year, with Homme at the controls,\u00a0Post Pop Depression\u00a0<\/em>has been described by Iggy as “Detroit meets Palm Desert by way of old Berlin”.<\/p>\n

And he’s not far wrong – there’s some Stooges<\/strong> swagger, machine-like riffing reminiscent of\u00a0Lust For Life<\/strong><\/em> and\u00a0The Idiot,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>and a humour that’s as dry as the Californian dust.<\/p>\n

There’s also a real groove to the record, courtesy of Homme and the other musicians on the album, multi-instrumentalist\u00a0Dean Fertita\u00a0<\/strong>(QOTSA and\u00a0Dead Weather<\/strong>) and\u00a0Arctic Monkey<\/strong>‘s sticksman\u00a0Matt Helders<\/strong>,\u00a0clearly having the time of his life.<\/p>\n

The spectre of\u00a0Bowie <\/strong>also haunts the album, with Iggy confronting his own mortality and legacy on several songs.<\/p>\n

\"Sons
Sons of the Desert – Josh Homme and Iggy Pop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opener\u00a0Break Into Your Heart<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0starts with some big\u00a0Steve Albini<\/strong>-esque drums as Iggy croons: ‘I’m gonna break into your heart\/I’m gonna crawl under your skin’.<\/p>\n

Age has added tone and wisdom to Iggy’s voice and Homme really draws it out here, particularly in the minimalist almost spoken word ending.<\/p>\n

Writing the record Iggy said he had a persona in mind, ‘a cross between myself and a military veteran,’ and maybe that’s who we meet\u00a0on Gardenia<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

A seedy tale of ‘cheapo’ highway motels, set to a kind of underground Let’s Dance\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>backing, Gardenia<\/em> follows the protagonist’s pursuit of the eponymous object of his desire.<\/p>\n

But this is not a love song, oh no, this guy wants ‘to tell Gardenia what to do tonight’ – to boss her around a little.<\/p>\n

And while he admires her ‘hour glass ass’ ‘When you turn the lights on\/There’s Always A Catch’ – this is no Hollywood romance.<\/p>\n

American Valhalla\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>is very much a song about raging against the dying of the light.<\/p>\n

Oriental keys give way to deep rumbling bass, as an old warrior wonders what awaits him in the great beyond.<\/p>\n

‘Is anybody in there?\/And can I bring a friend?,’ he asks plaintively, ‘Death is a pill that’s hard to swallow’.<\/p>\n

In the Lobby<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is a great groovy band track, with some dazzling spiky guitar work, as Iggy warns ominously ‘Somebody is losing their life tonight’.<\/p>\n

Helders’ jungle drums herald the arrival of\u00a0Sunday,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>where the influence of Bowie and the Berlin-era is most keenly felt.<\/p>\n

It’s also a showcase for Iggy’s word-smithery. ‘This house is as slick as a senator’s statement,’ he snarls, ‘This street is as cold as a corporate lawsuit’.<\/p>\n

Iggy’s baritone croon is lightened by soulful female backing singers as he rails against comfort and complacency ‘Got all I need and it is killing me – and you’.<\/p>\n

There’s also a majestic final sequence as strings and brass sweep in to join the chorus of voices. Quite brilliant.<\/p>\n

\"Iggy
Iggy credits Bowie with resurrecting him as an artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a Mexican-flavoured acoustic backing,\u00a0Vulture<\/strong><\/em> is another contemplation of death, but the below lines also suggest a satire on the music business and corporate culture in general.<\/p>\n

‘Fat black vulture has got no shame\/He’ll tell you a lie, cheat, steal and frame\/His poison whiff will kill you stiff\/This toxic executive wants your guts in his grip.’<\/p>\n

It’s back to Berlin again for\u00a0German Days<\/strong><\/em>, which is kind of a companion piece to Bowie’s\u00a0Where Are We Now?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Less a nostalgic look back to the pair’s time in Berlin, than a series of snatched memories and lyrical vignettes,\u00a0German Days\u00a0<\/em>is one of more ambiguous songs on the album.<\/p>\n

Pope Benedict gets name checked at one point, along with German fast food\u00a0Schnellimbiss, but there are hints of danger and decadence\u00a0behind the ‘champagne on ice’.<\/p>\n

Chocolate Drops\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>is Iggy’s answer to\u00a0REM<\/strong>‘s\u00a0Everybody Hurts\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>– the aural equivalent of having someone put a reassuring arm round your shoulders.<\/p>\n

‘When your love of life is an empty beach\/Don’r cry, don’t cry’, he sings, ‘When your enemy has you in his reach, don’t die, don’t die’.<\/p>\n

It’s also a song about getting old, looking back and letting go: ‘When there is no one to share that empty chair, well okay okay’.<\/p>\n

And while others when they get lemons make lemonade, well Iggy has this solution: ‘When you get to the bottom, you’re near the top\/Where shit turns into chocolate drops’.<\/p>\n

Last, but most definitely not least, comes\u00a0Paraguay<\/strong><\/em> and if this really is Iggy’s final song on his final album, he couldn’t have found a more fitting last hurrah.<\/p>\n

A blackly comic tale, it depicts a version of Iggy, shutting up shop\u00a0and disappearing off to South America.<\/p>\n

On one level it’s about getting rid of all the clutter, noise and information of modern life \u00a0and living on our instincts like animals who just ‘do what they goddam do’.<\/p>\n

But hey, this is rock star talking, he ain’t going completely back to basics but to ‘live in a compound under the trees\/With servants and bodyguards who love me’.<\/p>\n

There’s a wonderful foul-mouthed rant at the end where ‘Your basic clod, who made good’ sticks it to the ‘phoney two-faced, three-timing piece of turd’ who’s caused him to pack his ‘soul and scram’.<\/p>\n

\"Josh-Homme-Iggy-Pop\"<\/p>\n

The cliched image of\u00a0Iggy has ‘the godfather of punk’ roaring up to recording sessions on a motorcycle and laying down his vocals off the cuff between slugs of Jack Daniels.<\/p>\n

But anyone who’s listened to his excellent BBC 6 Music<\/strong>\u00a0shows will know what a keen student of music he is and what good taste he possesses.<\/p>\n

That side of Iggy is fully in evidence here, this is a tight, taught, disciplined record, shot through with brilliant lyrics and sharp urgent rhythms.<\/p>\n

If this, his 17th solo album, really does prove his swansong, then it’s a fine end to a glittering career.<\/p>\n

Personally, I hope he doesn’t leave us all with Post Pop Depression (geddit) and makes a few more albums with Homme.<\/p>\n

Post Pop Depression <\/em>is out on March 18<\/strong>\u00a0on Rekords Rekords\/Loma Vista\/Caroline International. iTunes:\u00a0http:\/\/found.ee\/PPD_iTunes<\/a>\u00a0Vinyl\/Merch:\u00a0http:\/\/found.ee\/PPD_OnlineStore<\/a>\u00a0Amazon: \u00a0http:\/\/found.ee\/PPD_Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n