Having recruited members of both Queens of the Stone Age and Arctic Monkeys to help out; Iggy Pop managed to create even more hype than you’d expect for the release of his 17th solo LP. After establishing himself as a punk icon, Iggy has dabbled in countless genres, from art rock to the blues, and the evolution his stylings has led to an aura of uncertainty as to what we might anticipate from ‘Post Pop Depression’.
With Josh Homme on production duty, the desert rock and stoner rock influence sticks out like a sore thumb, it seems that the sheer talent of this rock and roll dream team has, regrettably, been spread too thin, despite the album being a concise 9 tracks. You don’t have to search for too long to find an exquisite blues riff, a punchy bassline, or an example of genius lyricism, but Iggy fails to do the essential – bring all those elements together to create, at the very least, one decent track. ‘Vulture’ and ‘German Days’ arguably come close to achieving this feat, but when we’re dealing with someone of this stature, we have earned the right to desire a bit more than underwhelming song writing and lacklustre instrumentals.
One thing which can never be taken away from Iggy Pop is his charismatic and alluring vocal ability, which have allowed his voice to become one of the most recognised in rock history. Even that can’t act as a saving grace for this LP, as the vocals and the instrumentation sound like they've uncomfortably been locked in a room together until they unite to make a minimal-effort stylistic mess. Redundant repetition is also a running theme throughout, and never more so than on ‘Break Into Your Heart’ which begins to grow tiresome at around the 30-second mark.
The finest ingredients that rock had to offer all came together for this record, but with the flavours not complimenting each other, we were left with something far from the gourmet meal we were all hoping for.