Artist: Iggy Pop
Label: EMI Records
Released: 2009
Length: 36:19
Rating: 3.5/5
Heroin. Smashed bottles. Scars. Berlin. David Bowie. China Girl. The Stooges – those are words from the past. Godfather of punk. Savior of rock. Master of pop. France. The Possibility of an Island. Michel Houellebecq – those are words from the present. Reigning over it all is Iggy Pop, a rebel with a cause, who in the autumn of his life is discovering art in a different, above all more refined light, and using it to keep his creative fire going. The result is the album Préliminaires, a collection of twelve French-English tracks inspired by The Possibility of an Island, a book by the provocative author (and occasional film director and musician) Michel Houellebecq, in which Pop found pleasure and experiences similar to his own. Or better put – in it, Ig escapes from himself. Préliminaires is also a record whose music was created for the autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis by Oscar-nominated Marjane Satrapi, and it’s his first solo album since Skull Ring in 2003.
An album made for small, dimly lit Parisian cafés, it starts and ends in just that style. Les Feuilles Mortes (English: Auntum Leaves), a song originally performed by Jacques Prévert, sets a pleasantly dark mood, spiced up with a great sax solo. Pop isn’t the only one to cover this excellent song, mind you. Many years earlier Edith Piaf and Yves Montard did it too, but let’s skip the debate about whose version is better. The vibe carries on with I Want to Go to the Beach, one of the few English-language songs on the album, where you can draw parallels with tracks á la Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, and in the next one with, say, Louis Armstrong or Jelly Roll Morton. In King of the Dogs, Ig transforms from a French chansonnier into a New Orleans jazzman, with a wind circus of trumpet, trombone and clarinet stretching over two minutes. One of the few rock numbers on the album is Je Sais Que Tu Sais, which hits hard with a repetitive drum and bass groove and the seductive French of Lucie Aimé. Then comes Spanish Coast, a great four-minute masterpiece with a rich arrangement and French chanson inspiration. Right at the halfway point sits Nice to be Dead, where Pop shows off his ultimate rock persona and the tuned-up guitars only drive home one of the verses: “You can convince the world that you`re some kind of superstar, when an asshole is all you are, but that`s all right.”
The Stooges frontman kicks off the second half with How Intensive, which recalls his earlier albums, from the days when he was still working with his close buddy, another great musician, David Bowie. Another gem on this album worth singling out is He`s Dead/She`s Alive, a great two-minute blues number that works like a balm after the electronically wound-up Party Time, marked by muted synths, a cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim. The inspiration Pop drew from the book mentioned at the start, The Possibility of an Island, peaks in A Machine for Loving You. Here Iggy doesn’t appear as a singer but more as a narrator, which gets him an almost perfect close to the album. All that’s left after that is She`s a Buisness, a bouncy little rock`n`roll tune, and a second version of the opening track Les Feuilles Mortes.
Préliminaires is, in short, one of those albums that blends acoustic blues with touches of modern production, and going by what we heard, you can’t accuse Pop of lacking creativity. C` est magnifique!
Lineup
Iggy Pop – guitar, vocals
Hal Cragin – bass, guitar, percussion, drum programming
Jon Cowherd – piano
Kevin Hupp – drums, congas
Tim Ouimette – trumpet
Production
Hal Cragin
Tracklist
1. Les Feuilles Mortes
2. I Want to go to the Beach
3. King of the Dogs
4. Je Sais Que Tu Sais
5. Spanish Coast
6. Nice to be Dead
7. How Intensive
8. Party Time
9. He`s Dead/She`s Alive
10. A Machine for Loving You
11. She`s A Business
12. Les Feuilles Motes (Marc`s Theme)
