Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression

Iggy Pop
Post Pop Depression
2016
Spotify

Iggy Pop has been on the vanguard of damn near everything. From Punk to Pop there is not a piece of popular culture that somehow can't be traced back to the early antics of Iggy Pop. However it seems like when He collaborates is when we get his most exciting stuff. That was the case with Idiot (David Bowie) and now Post Pop Depression (Josh Homme) follows the same suit. There are a few times like on "Gardenia" where Iggy actually eerily sounds a bit like David Bowie, it is haunting yet soothing all at the same time. Post Pop Depression is not light on the Homme influence. His signature style of Rock with a bend toward the avante garde is clearly present and suits Iggy just fine. This album in particular is really stripped down only including what is needed to push the song forward minus any kind of flourish. This allows for the ideas of the record to shine brighter, and this record's main feature is the ideas that it puts out. There is an intense sense of melancholy throughout the album as Iggy reflects on his eventual retirement, loss and the state of the world. Iggy Pop goes on the embody the low level depression that it seems the entire world is walking around in. He no longer is relying on pure power, or his "what will he do next" reputation to make music, instead it will be fully him, possibly morphing back in to Jim Osterberg for the first time in his career.

Homme's production at this point is so evident that you can pick it out almost immediately. He has this style where you can just tell this is a guy who knows everything there is to know about rock & roll. The history and the reverence drips from every corner, but never in the pretentious way always in a way that is easily available to you. This record though is much more understated than something you would hear from The Queens of the Stone Age. It is simple, and even though this may be sacrilegious to say about an Iggy Pop record, it may even be called refined. "Sunday" with it's orchestral outro is a pretty song to begin with, but is so elevated by the inclusion of the outro that it just feels comforting. "Vulture" and "Paraguay" is where we get a more theatrical look at Iggy, but these songs feel more like where Iggy has been rather than where He is now. It is missing that authenticity that most of Post Pop Depression has and feels, which is possibly intentional, more like a play. Like Bowie's Blackstar Post Pop Depression fells like something coming to an end, and reflecting on where you have been. We are in a really interesting time where these artists who have been around as long as we can remember actually have a chance to exit with the same artistry that they entered. Post Pop Depression is by no means is Iggy Pop's best record, nor is it the best record of this year. But, in a sense this album just feels right for the place and time that Iggy currently finds himself.

7.2 out of 10