You readers are lucky, you’re getting a double whammy of music reviews this weekend. I figured in my absence, the music world kept turning, so I wanted to write about Iggy Pop’s new album, along with the review I already posted about Redemption’s The Art of Loss, which can be found here. This Iggy Pop album is different from his others, though, because it’s a solo album by definition, but really it’s Iggy Pop meets Queens of the Stone Age. It’s a fascinating combination, and one that I would not have put together in my wildest dreams, and yet it’s kind of perfect. Iggy Pop, for those of you unfamiliar, is the frontman for the pre-punk band The Stooges, and at 68 years of age, he’s not slowing down. I’m sure you can google some of his antics, as he’s always been a wild performer, which always made him unique.

This one-off supergroup consists not only of Iggy Pop, as you can see from the album cover. He is joined by Josh Homme and Dean Fertita, frontman/guitarist and keyboardist/bassist, respectively, of Queens of the Stone Age. The band is rounded out with drummer Matt Helders, of the Arctic Monkeys. I don’t know if I can accurately and effectively define this album in terms of a genre, because it’s part garage rock, part art rock, and has some jazz thrown in there as well. Unlike a few of the albums I’ve written about, this album doesn’t have a constant theme other than an “I’m tired of this stuff” vibe I get here and there.

The album opens with this track, Break Into Your Heart, and right from the start I realized something. I realized that this album was going to be the album that Lulu had aspired to be. If you’re unfamiliar with my reference, the album Lulu was the abomination of a collaboration between the legendary Lou Reed and Metallica. It took an aging rock star and slammed him into the middle of Metallica during their “trying to figure out where they are in the music world now” stage, and it was a disaster. I wrote about the album many years ago, and while maybe it was just far ahead of its time, it didn’t make me feel anything. Post Pop Depression, however, is something completely different.

This album is emotional, visceral, and powerful. Iggy’s voice, at almost 70, has taken a more haunting quality over the years. He doesn’t try to hit the notes he used to hit, and he’s fine with how he’s changed over the years. I mean, he still has the “I hate the establishment” vibe as he’s always had, and that’s terrific. His rebellious streak shines in this album, as he’s able to combine his singing with spoken word to get his messages across. He’s got a lot of anger in him. Not every song is a downer, though, and when each song starts, you can tell who had a greater influence on it between the band members. For instance, Iggy seems to have run the show for Break Into Your Heart, but in the next song posted, Gardenia, it may have been more of a Homme/Fertita affair. You can hear the difference in songs depending on the mixing of the instruments, and whether Iggy’s voice is louder than the guitar. No matter what the song, though, you will hear clear riffs that would be right out of a QOTSA b-side.

An easy comparison for this album happens to be David Bowie, may he rest in peace, and Iggy definitely channels Bowie on this album. In some places, his voice even sounds like Bowie. It’s really quite something. For a minute, I thought I was listening to a Blackstar demo album collaboration. For more on Blackstar, Bowie’s final album, feel free to check out my review here. It’s not a shameless plug, rather, it’s a comparison. I defy you to listen to this album and tell me that Iggy doesn’t sound kind of like David Bowie in songs like American Valhalla and Gardenia. Either way, Gardenia was the first song that Iggy released to get fans hyped up for this surprise project. In case you weren’t sure, or hadn’t really heard of this, the album kind of came out of nowhere. I imagine the whole situation in my head – Iggy was bored one day and wanted to write a few songs, and was listening to some music when a QOTSA song came on and he said “hey, these guys aren’t bad, I wonder what they’re up to?” He then got in touch with whoever he needed to, and called up Josh Homme and said “hey, I’m making this album, want to make it with me?” And I’m sure Homme responded “hell yes” and that was it. Sometimes things are that simple. Obviously, I’m not saying that’s what happened, but come on. Can you picture it happening any other way?

Sunday is the kind of song you’d get if you told Iggy Pop and Josh Homme that they had to write a Duran Duran song. It’s catchy, poppy, uses a lot more electronic than anything else on the album, and very light with a fun bassline. It’s a stark contrast to even the next song, Vulture, which is dark and heavy. This album is very raw, and doesn’t tend to use much fancy stuff outside of songs like Sunday, or artificial sounds like chimes or bells. The production of it is very gritty as well, and it sounds like many of these songs may have been recorded in one take. I doubt that’s the case, because Homme tends to be a perfectionist (and rightfully so, have you listened to his music before?) but it’s the sound they were going for. It’s kind of like bands that record in lo-fi now, I remember someone recently sending me a clip of an album where a band recorded on an ipad to get a less produced sound. In the vein of Iggy of the past, this album is crunchy and heavy, and features plenty of Iggy yelling about things that bother him. This may bother some listeners not used to Iggy as a musician, but it’s actually kind of perfect. This random collaboration is a home run, and one that I’m so glad it actually happened.

Throughout the album, you can hear the tracks like In The Lobby that sound as if they were pulled from QOTSA’s library and Iggy recorded vocals over them. It’s a surprising fit, all things considered. Would you have ever paired Iggy Pop and Josh Homme together? I wouldn’t have, and yet it makes total sense. Their different styles contrast and pull together to make something that’s quite unusual and fun to listen to. Opposites attract, but then again, Homme and Iggy aren’t total opposites. I won’t get into the differences between the two musicians, and it seems that I’ve ignored Fertita and Helders, but that’s not the case. It’s just easier to refer to this as project as Iggy and Homme, since those two contributed the most to this project.

I call this a project because it’s more than just an album. The guys are going on tour to support this album, and they will be joined by Troy Van Leeuwen (also of QOTSA, along with APC and Failure). Also, I call this a project, because from everything I’ve read, the guys didn’t write songs separately. They came into the studio with just ideas and then put them together and recorded. That’s about as cool and rock and roll as you get. With all that written, I proudly give Post Pop Depression 13 Ratings Units out of 15. It was fun, it was thought provoking, and it rocked. It’s the kind of thing I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams, and yet it’s perfect right where it is. I can’t wait to see them on tour.