851 Iggy Pop - The Idiot (1977)

 851 Iggy Pop - The Idiot (1977)


Studio Album - Art Rock



About the Act:

Iggy Pop is an American from Muskegon, Michigan. He was the frontman for the 60s proto-punk band The Stooges, who had little commercial success but gained a reputation for extreme antics on stage, mostly by iggy, involving self-mutilation and exposure.  After the band split in the mid 70s, Iggy went on to have a successful solo career. He is still alive and still going, despite being in his 70s. He usually performs bare-torsoed.  Between the Stooges, one collaboration, and lots of solo albums there are 25 studio albums in total.


About the Album:

This was Iggy's first solo album. It came at a time when he and David Bowie wanted to get clean from heroin addiction, so they had quite the USA and gone to Europe, mostly Germany. It is produced by Bowie, who also played quite a bit of the instrumental parts, wrote the music for the tracks, and did backing vocals. In fact some people regard it as more of a Bowie album than an Iggy Pop album.


My History with this Album:

I'm pretty sure I have heard it before. I think maybe I once had a cassette copy.


Review:

It's kind of raw, by which I mean at times badly produced. I think that this is essentially because the demos that David Bowie made effectively became the actual release tracks, with some overdubbing involved. It's heavily synth-based in a style that was to become Bowie's new style, influenced by the German electronic scene (Krautrock, not Disco) and it's like a great big slap in the face. 

The songs are mixed. Musically they are mostly interesting, but some are on the tedious or over-simplistic side. The first track, Sister Moonshine, is probably the best, and probably the most produced. The two go together. Iggy improvised some of the lyrics while recording which didn't go badly all in all.  This doesn't mean they are nonsense. There's a song about a girl he fancied, who was somebody else's girlfriend, which David Bowie also recorded and had a hit with - China Girl. There's a song about the Stooges. There's a song about a yearning for a simple relationship. 

The big star here is Iggy's voice. It's a force of nature, and creates an ambience to the songs that would be missing without it. It's an earthy, gravelly growl that has a power and presence few can manage. It's not technical (but not bad either in that sense) - it's - well I'll run out of adjectives. I think many people think that the rawness of the production matches the rawness of his voice, and maybe they are right, but I feel like it could have been more powerful if it was less ragged. Still, it has guts, in spades.


7/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/78UazygH85UAB0qXqQpzg6

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI21Mpk0oq-VJnhfGmCF9-0uqFOcZYtvG

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Idiot_(album)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

944 Manu Chao - Próxima Estación Esperanza (2001)

Image
 944 Manu Chao - Próxima Estación Esperanza (2001) Studio Album - World Music About the Act: Manu Chao is a French-Spanish musician of Spanish descent who grew up on the outskirts of Paris. In the mid-80s he was in a Spanish/English rockabilly group called Hot Pants. In 1987, with his brother and cousin he founded the band Mano Negra, combining punk and world music influences and playing on the Paris Metro. This band took off and had 4 studio albums. In 1995 Manu "went solo", forming the band Radio Bemba Sound System to be his backing band. The punk elements were less prominent, but he started to make music that "replicates the sound of street music and bar scenes from a variety of cultures". He has been really popular in parts of Europe.  About the Album: This album was Manu Chao's second studio album as a "solo" artist. In Spanish, the name means "Next Station: Hope", after a real station on the Madrid Metro. The album reached top 10 slots ...
Read more

840 Various Artists - The Best of Girl Groups Volumes 1 and 2 (1990)

Image
 840 Various Artists - The Best of Girl Groups Volumes 1 and 2 (1990) Compilation (double) - Girl Group (Soul/Bobby Soxer/Do-Wop) About the Album: This is a highly acclaimed compilation in 2CDs by Rhino Records. It's the sort of thing that in this country you might expect to see at 3.99 in a Garden Centre. My History with this Album: None Review: There are not many multi-artist compilations in this series for reviewing. There is not information about it on Wikipedia, but the reception seems to have been positive. It is choc-full of hits with a smattering of lesser-known songs, and it's hard not to imagine Grease or similar situations - girls with cardigans and white socks, listening to the juke box while sipping milkshakes in the drug store. On one level it's a fun collection of songs that you could use to feel nostalgic, or as the music for a themed party. On another level it's kind of like a cultural artefact. I feel honour-bound to describe it, even though if I drop ...
Read more

843 Chambers Brothers - The Time has Come (1967)

Image
 843 Chambers Brothers - The Time has Come (1967) Studio Album - Psychedelic Soul About the Act: The Chambers Brothers are an American Psychedelic Soul band from LA, who were formed in 1954 and are still going. They were at heart four brothers, but I think they have now all left the band.  About the Album: This was their debut album (12 years on from forming as a band), and it spawned their most successful single Time Has Come Today. My History with this Album: None. I had never heard of the Chambers Brothers before this list. Review: I am not an American, nor a Social Historian, but I think I can accurately claim that in 1960s America there was a certain separation between the Black community and other communities. As a result of this, and for marketing reasons, the idea of music that was created with a Black audience in mind was an actual thing. I'm not sure if today we would be quite so sure about what constitutes "Black Music", but then, I think, they were generally q...
Read more