Eternal rebel Iggy Pop finds a creative foil in desert rock guru Josh Homme on his California-recorded 17th album, Post Pop Depression.
Pop and Homme, who produced the record, are supported in their rock and roll wanderings by Dean Fertita (guitar, keyboards) and Matt Helders on drums.
Ever the searcher, Iggy is blunt and poetic on Post Pop Depression. He’s an alternate reality Leonard Cohen that likes to rock out. Homme, Fertita and Helders frame his ideas in traditional style. That is, they keep it angular and sparse, and that spiky sound hints at restlessness.
Whatever he is, Pop isn’t safe and his poetic sense of escapism by way of simple commentary encourages unconventional ideas against simple rhythms. American Valhalla falls into that style and emerges as a bouncy drone led along by Pop’s reflective musings.
The album’s music is varied and Gardenia is a snappy pseudo single that hints at surf rock and beat poetry.
Homme’s role of band leader, producer and co-songwriter pays off in the comfort zone of abstract ideas and rough rocking. The intellectual boorishness that Pop throws around is harnessed by Homme on tracks like In the Lobby and Sunday, barely contained nuggets of song that grind along in their unhinged way.
There’s no blueprint for music like this and its feel of “going for it” gives it a hard jazzy attitude and sense of discovery. Pop’s voice is friendly and semi comic, but always has authority. Some songs veer on performance art (Vulture), but Pop will often use songs for some type of spectacle.
German Days is a promising signpost to the future for the Pop/Homme duo. The song is a carnival-esque look back to Pop’s mid-‘70s work in Berlin with David Bowie. It’s a startling and inventive track, as is the more sedate (in comparison) Chocolate Drops – a stark ballad with a Teutonic air of determination.
Pop marches relentlessly on, breaking different ground like some post-punk poet laureate with the left leaning support of Homme and company.
– Dean Gordon-Smith is a Vernon-based musician who writes about new music releases every Friday for The Morning Star.
