Iggy Pop – Free LP

Rating: 5 out of 5.

For his 18th studio album, Iggy Pop admits that “this is an album in which other artists speak for me, but I lend my voice” and that this is the consequence of a very tiring tour in support of the Post Pop Depression album. The septuagenarian Iggy Pop felt “Drained” and wanted to be “free” for his newest opus, even though he said multiple time that he was retiring.

“I felt like I wanted to put on shades, turn my back, and walk away, I wanted to be free. I know that’s an illusion, and that freedom is only something you feel, but I have lived my life thus far in the belief that that feeling is all that is worth pursuing; all that you need—not happiness or love necessarily, but the feeling of being free.”

With Free, Iggy went back to his jazzy side, with the collaboration of Leron Thomas (who wrote most of the lyrics), a jazz trumpeter from Houston & Sarah Lipstate (Noveller), a music composer.

After an opening with only one word spoken “free”, Love Missing is like a song that show you the wrong direction. It’s the most rock song of the album – and a good one – but then he surprises you with something totally different.

This is an album of poetry, spoken words, dreamy jazzy brass instrument, exploration & introspection.

Even with Dirty Sanchez which is surely the most punk song of the album – lyric speaking – he manages to rhyme “sluts” with “butts.

This is an album that won’t please everybody for sure. It’s too much of an UFO. And as I love his early work with The Stooges, I really felt something listening to this album. Like being connected to what he is singing or saying. This is a perfect album to listen to, sitting in a nice comfortable sofa, with a very good single malt in hand, while it’s raining outside…

EDIT: I just bought the vinyl version, and this is a totally different experience. The 2 sides are very different. Somehow, it’s something you don’t realize while listening to the CD or the digital version. Side one is more rock, side two is definitively more dreamy and quiet. Depending on your state of mind, you just choose the side that suits you the best. Did he have that in mind while making this album?
 


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