Music Review: Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression

Iggy Pop, the godfather of punk, has been a longstanding treasure to the music world, actively making music for the last 45 or so years. From The Stooges, a group who were unbelievably ahead of their time and remain largely influential, to a rather long and illustrious solo career that has meandered over a myriad of genres - blues, garage rock, new wave, and even jazz. In spite of his popularity, most of Pop's recent solo efforts have mostly been overlooked, with 1993's American Caesar being perhaps the last Pop album the larger audience paid attention to. Post Pop Depression is Pop's seventeenth solo album and his newest album since 2012's jazz and blues album of French covers, Après. In what may be Pop's final album, Post Pop Depression brings out the best of Pop's long and varied music career.

Iggy Pop's seventeenth solo album - Post Pop Depression

Post Pop Depression partners Iggy Pop with Queens of the Stone Age front man Josh Homme (also providing the rhythm section for the Eagles of Death Metal), with musical contributions from Queens of the Stone Age's Dean Fertita and Arctic Monkeys's drummer Matt Helders. The beginnings of the writing process revolved around Pop and Homme sending lyrical bits back and forth before the two more formally decided to work together on a new album. Both musicians entered the recording studio in early 2015 with a series of partial songs, allowing them a framework to build upon together. The album itself is a bit of a retrospective journey as Pop looks back on his career and feels his utility is up and all that's left is the legacy. The album's title, Post Pop Depression, captures that looking back feeling and paints it in a somewhat bleak manner. Make no mistake, however. This album is not the dying final breath of someone who should have stopped years ago. Post Pop Depression is, in some ways, a parallel to David Bowie's Blackstar (appropriate as Bowie helped form Pop's early career by writing and producing parts of his first two solo albums).

The album opens with "Break Into Your Heart," a track with a wild west-esque musical vibe, drawing some inspiration perhaps from some of the Eagles of Death Metal work, laced with Pop's still strong croon. In fact, this may be the strongest Pop's voice has been in recent years, full of life, yet controlled. The perfect opening as the stage is set for this album to "get under your skin."

"Gardenia," the album's lead single, comes next, feeling a bit like a throwback to some of the early Ziggy/Iggy work the two pioneered in the 70s. While the song carries that 70s feel to it, there's still that modern, forward moving feeling that Pop has often tried (with varying levels of success) to build into his works. Here, the efforts pay in dividends. Built on one of Pop's usual lyrical themes of sex, "Gardenia" comes together in the right way so as to not cheapen the song (which can't be said about other recent efforts from Pop...I'm looking at you "DD's" from the last Stooges Album!).

Third track, "American Valhalla," revolves around a fuzz baseline that sounds very similar, though perhaps deeper, to Gary Numan's iconic bass/synth line in "Metal" meshed with "China Girl"-esque vibraphone overtones (perhaps another subtle look back?). Skipping over "In The Lobby" (a good song, just nothing terribly standout about it), we come to "Sunday," perhaps the strongest song on the album. "Sunday" combines electric guitar riffs from Homme with a classic disco bass line, creating a dancy little number, somewhat reminiscent of Bowie's 80s period (Let's Dance in particular). Immediately catchy, the song has an abrupt shift after the first four minutes into a classical soundscape. Often this is a transition that leads to utter disaster. Here, the orchestral outro is somehow fitting and pulled off expertly.

"Vulture" meshes a Spanish-style acoustic guitar with bitter lyrics surrounding the idea of death. Pop's vocals bring in an element of Native American peyote lodge and an odd paranoia where you can almost see Pop's eyes shifting nervously, looking for this vulture he croons about.

The most Stooges sounding track on the album, "German Days," brings in that heavy fuzz guitar and bass sound, but isn't matched with vocals of the same ilk. Instead, Pop opts to draw the words out over the fuzz. Certainly an interesting experience and a nod back to the stoner rock days of old.

The second to last track, "Chocolate Drops," is purely decadent (as the title might suggest). Piano chords take the center stage along with tubular bells and Homme's otherworldly falsettos. There is a freedom you can feel in this song, almost like you're flying and leaving behind the weight of the past. Between this and "Sunday," you have my favorite track from this album.

Closing track "Paraguay" opens with a gospel-esque spoken word. More than any other track on the album, this may be Pop's attempt at an artistic farewell, saying that he'll go "where sore losers go / to hide my face and spend my dough." Pop begins to reconcile with his past success and instead of being weighed down by it, he finds a way to let go, move ahead without fear, and go to Paraguay (mind you, not all of this is perhaps a literal account of what Pop plans for the near future, but it's the concept of separating yourself from your past successes so as to not tear yourself apart when you can't match that for whatever reason).

Pop has hinted in recent interviews that this may be the last of Pop's music career, but I hope not. This is Pop's strongest album in years and has the ability to stand fairly strong against even his most applauded albums.