Knowing that as a listener, perhaps it’s all too clear, even in the eyes of Iggy Pop, that his drug-fueled escapades of a budding punk rock and post punk heaven are behind him. Much like his longtime friend, the recently deceased David Bowie, millennial releases have been far from horrible, but nonetheless, projects like the last Stooges album for example can’t help but invoke a capitalization on nostalgia of former glory. Pop has always been a showman, wildly predicating any stage antics and general debauchery we see out of the most charismatic rock gods in today’s society (or a blatant copycat of his demeanor and dress if you’re Anthony Kiedis). See, it ain’t your dad’s record collection, only those who create with heavily influential cues from his favorite artists growing up!Īmidst the wear and tear of an icon like Iggy Pop, the buildup to Post Pop Depression is perhaps too invasive of his fellow musical senseis. Tagging along are Homme’s fellow Queen of the Stone Age, Dean Fertita, as well as Arctic Monkeys drummer, Matt Helders. Josh Homme and Iggy Pop are generational talents that happen to be invading the newest uprising with fresh outlooks on life and their work. In this present time where true bred household name rock stars are a scarcity, the next best thing can be derived instead from those already solidified in our collective hearts. To listen to Post Pop Depression is to examine the players at work here, and revel at the meshing of worlds colliding, not that collaboration is difficult given the talent available. If Post Pop Depression does end up being Pop's last recorded hurrah, it's a worthy one.Review Summary: Lust for a former life. In "German Days," the record's most flagrantly nostalgic song, Homme and his team tap into the decadent, wiry menace of the Berlin albums while Pop glances back with rueful irony at Lust For Life: "When your love of life is an empty beach / When it's painful to express the things you feel." In lesser hands, that might come off as self-parody, but instead, the singer sounds like he's owning his legacy - and having a good time doing it, introspection notwithstanding. "Sunday," for instance, unabashedly recalls that era with its skeletal yet punchy drumming, sculpted guitar and avant-garage edge. The most sentimental moments, though, come when the band is clearly channeling Pop's high point as a solo artist: his collaborations with David Bowie in Berlin on the classic '70s albums The Idiot and Lust For Life. But for every glimpse at the punk of old, Pop drops tender moments like "Gardenia," a lush, catchy love song that's also ever-so-slightly eerie. His spoken-word, expletive-laden, anti-laptop rant in "Paraguay" is the kind of get-off-my-lawn stuff that Pop has more than earned the right to unleash. Still, he never lets the album get too pensive. But even when he lets out some morbid paranoia during "In The Lobby" ("My shadow is walking in front of me / And I hope I'm not losing my life tonight"), he seems more like a predator than prey. For a man whose musical fortunes have seen many peaks and valleys - during some stretches of his long career, it has indeed felt as if Pop's name was all he had going for him - it's a chillingly vulnerable confession. "I have nothing but my name," Pop intones at the close of "American Valhalla," his voice a study in smoke and gravel. The album is all sharp angles and hard muscles, from the choppy, stomping riff of "Break Into Your Heart" to the splintered rage of "Paraguay." With that kind of lineup, it's clear that this isn't going to be any kind of retirement party, and Pop obliges his younger cohorts' zeal with plenty of his own. In addition to producing and co-writing Post Pop Depression, Homme provides guitar, bass, piano and backing vocals also in the group are guitarist Dean Fertita (Homme's right-hand man in Queens Of The Stone Age, as well as Jack White's bandmate in The Dead Weather) and drummer Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys. But with Homme's acumen as the architect of Queens Of The Stone Age stirred into the mix, there's decadent ecstasy to the album that's as far from glum as you can get. Throughout its nine songs, Pop pipes in his most unctuous croon, a work of nature that's only become more monumental as it's eroded over the decades. Not that the album itself is quite as ominous as its name. That might be part of why Pop's new album - a collaboration with Josh Homme - bears the title Post Pop Depression. Given Iggy Pop's recent announcement that he may be retiring from the music business, it's been an introspective time for the rock giant.
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