Distortion-bombed opener “Frenzy” is one of the most ferocious Iggy Pop songs in recent memory, but it also boasts hooks upon hooks, its bright chorus harmonies giving way to gang-shouted punctuation. On Every Loser, the rock songs rock hard, the new wave tracks beam brightly, and even the somewhat drippy acoustic ballad “Morning Show” is bolstered by a contagious forward momentum. Here, he does so with a team of veteran rockers from bands like Guns N’ Roses, Jane’s Addiction, blink-182, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, plus some of the last sessions from late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. He’s the guy who helped Miley Cyrus walk the line between rock and pop on Plastic Hearts and who shepherded Post Malone into acoustic ballad mode with “Stay.” Even when digging into the aggro side of his skill set, he tends toward melody and radio-friendly polish. Watt came up playing guitar in Justin Bieber’s band and has credits with the likes of Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey, and Charli XCX. Watt, Iggy’s producer and songwriting partner, has guided similar late-career efforts from Ozzy Osbourne and Eddie Vedder, but he’s a producer with one foot firmly planted in the pop mainstream. He was basically in You Want It Darker mode, but without the poetic chops to resonate all that deeply.įortunately, Every Loser pivots sharply from that headspace. The albums were fixated on aging, mortality, and loss the latter was full of jazzy, contemplative soundscapes that became a canvas for Iggy’s crooning and spoken-word monologues, which at one point included a reading of Hollywood’s favorite Dylan Thomas poem. He teamed up with members of Queens Of The Stone Age and Arctic Monkeys for 2016’s Post Pop Depression - a muted pastiche of his groovy Berlin classics - then got even more meditative and mercurial on 2019’s Free. And for the better part of a decade, he has seemed to be easing into a contemplative fadeout.Įver since 2013’s suitably raunchy and aggressive Ready To Die, Iggy has been demonstrating just how prepared for death he actually is. Pop’s solo discography is a winding road that veers between the experimental and accessible. The Stooges offered a lot more than raw power. Yet even that character sketch implies the man born James Osterberg has always been a complex artist. In some ways, Iggy has always been the same since emerging in the late 1960s, a thinking man’s feral rock star, louche and charismatic and self-destructive and well-read. We all probably conjure the same image of Iggy Pop in our minds - his torso shirtless and impossibly ripped, a Samson-like mane flowing past his shoulders, his face weathered and leathery yet somehow ageless. Though far from a masterpiece, it’s a welcome addition to the louder and more playful side of Iggy’s catalog. Backed by his latest assortment of rock ‘n’ roll mercenaries, with pop-minded rocker Andrew Watt at the helm, Iggy has delivered his most immediate, straightforward, energetic record in years. He makes colorful, peculiar choices on songs that feel blessedly low-stakes. On his new album Every Loser, Iggy rocks out.
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