Iggy Pop Surrounds Himself with the Wrong People on Every Loser

⭐️⭐️ 2/5 Stars

Andrew Watt produces it and in a lot of ways he’s probably just as important as Iggy, himself. Iggy’s really old but so is (or were) Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, David Bowie, Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, and several jazz musicians … there’s two paths to great late career records 1) Be a genius – or – 2) Get Rick Rubin. It was years ago, maybe ten, when Iggy appeared on American Idol but from there I figured there was problem. His last record Free was interesting, pretty bad tbh, but interesting at least. This feels a bit like post Scream Dream Ted Nugent, manufactured without real heart. I know I should just give Iggy a pass and take it for what it is but I can’t, because it could be so much more.

Watt produced Fuck It, I Love You which is brilliant but Lana Del Rey is already brilliant so he wasn’t really making lemonade.

Actually, vocally a lot of this reminds me of Stiv Baters especially from the Lords of the New Church debut, which is a fantastic record if you’ve never heard it, which again makes it so depressing how mediocre the song writing is here. He sings about junkies, he sings about Miami, aging, and doing the morning show and whatever else he’s thinking about. When he tries to be punk it sounds like a parody. There’s hints of Tom Waits and Roger Waters and Echo and the Bunnymen and The Cult all done without much intensity or spirit. Assisted by guys from Guns N’ Roses, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction (JA being the only one of those bands I like) they are just the wrong people.

I hope Iggy gives us one last rock solid winner before he drops but this ain’t it.