Living legend IGGY POP is having fun again. Next Friday he’s releasing a new album, ”Every Loser”. After a couple of meditative and mercurial albums, Iggy rocks out again. Produced by Andrew Watt, who helped spark Ozzy Osbourne’s career, ‘Every Loser’ crackles with similar energy and features a lineup of familiar musicians including Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith – who are part of the producer’s growing stable – some of the last sessions from late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, guitarist Dave Navarro, and more.
Backed by that assortment of rock ‘n’ roll mercenaries, Iggy has delivered here his most immediate, straightforward, energetic record in years. Though far from a masterpiece, it’s a welcome addition to the louder and more playful side of Iggy’s catalog.
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. He has his personal aesthetic on lock.
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.
Clocking in at a lean 36 minutes, the 11-track ”Every Loser” wastes little time with mood-building and subtlety, which suits the aggressively youthful Pop just fine. He uses his bag of vocal tricks (serious baritone, raspy howl, spite dripping from every other word) to fit the songs, applying weight or, most convincingly, an eternal bottomless insolence, still raging at age 75.
On ”Every Loser”, the rock songs rock hard, the pop tracks beam brightly, and even the somewhat drippy acoustic ballad “Morning Show” is bolstered by a contagious forward momentum. 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.
Closer “The Regency” segues from tense, jangly verses to a wide-open distorted chorus in which Iggy repeatedly declares, “Fuck the regency! Fuck the regency! Fuck the regency up!”
In between are additional well-crafted rock songs like the synth-streaked “Strung Out Johnny,” and the Stones-y “All The Way Down”.
At 75, Iggy Pop has given us a bunch of delicious empty calories, a buffet of gauche sonic pleasure with more than enough personality to make up for its lack of profundity. ”Every Loser” seems destined to join an underrated canon of albums from legacy artists, records that, while short of essential, would actually be entertaining to see performed between the hits at a live show.
It adds up to nothing more — and nothing less — than a bunch of seasoned rockers having a blast under a crisp professional sheen. After years of bleary mood pieces, you just might find that all this weirdo fun is contagious.
Highly Recommended
Tracklist:
01. Frenzy (03:00)
02. Strung Out Johnny (04:13)
03. New Atlantis (04:08)
04. Modern Day Ripoff (03:29)
05. Morning Show (03:47)
06. The News For Andy (Interlude) (00:55)
07. Neo Punk (02:15)
08. All The Way Down (04:29)
09. Comments (03:53)
10. My Animus (Interlude) (01:02)
11. The Regency (05:42)
Iggy Pоp – EVERY LOSER (2023)+FLAC
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