Iggy Pop - Preliminairies

King Of The Dogs; Iggy comes of age, makes career high

Despite The Stooges’ new lease of life, tragically cut short by Ron Asheton’s untimely death, Iggy was getting tired of being shackled to guitar-driven rock and entertainer status. After being profoundly moved by French novelist Michel Houellebecq’s The Possibility Of An Island, he wrote and recorded this imaginary soundtrack, resulting in his most esoteric, artistically-rewarding album since 1977’s The Idiot. Iggy emerges as a serious, sensitive singer-songwriter draped in exotic musical tapestries, but still unmistakably Ignacious.

The rich Pop tones are no stranger to ballads but if ever a voice was made to smokily intone en Français, it’s his broken croon on the opening Les Feuilles Mortes (evergreen standard Autumn Leaves). Tone now set, I Want To Go To The Beach and desolate Spanish Coast are just two of the wonderfully intimate ballads. His recent New Orleans jazz fixation erupts on the riotous King Of The Dogs, while the passage about the dog’s death he reads from the novel on A Machine For Loving is sublimely touching. Rock bombast only pokes out on Nice To Be Dead but, on this brave showing, Iggy can nestle with Waits and Cave as he acts his age with grace, imagination and still a healthy shot of danger.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

Virgin | CDVUS 297

Reviewed by Kris Needs
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