Post Pop Depression

Against the odds, Iggy Pop turns 70 next month, and his music is as vital as ever.  His most recent album, Post Pop Depression (2016), ranks 4 stars from Allmusic; Mark Deming writes:  “When it was announced that Iggy Pop would be collaborating with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, the music press buzzed with anticipation about the project.  What would the proto-punk icon and the snarky hard rock smart guy come up with?  The surprise answer is 2016’s Post Pop Depression, in many respects an unwitting but loving tribute to Pop’s friend and collaborator David Bowie.  Post Pop Depression arrived two months after Bowie’s death, and was completed before his health problems became common knowledge.  More than anything, though, this music evokes the sound and feel of Pop’s first two solo albums.  1977’s The Idiot and Lust for Life were cut with Bowie in Germany as Pop struggled to make sense of his life and career after the Stooges collapsed.  With the reunited Stooges gone following the deaths of Ron [Asheton] and Scott Asheton, Post Pop Depression finds Pop returning to the work he made in 1977, in ways that count the most.  Post Pop Depression is smart and thoughtful, intelligent without being pretentious, and full of bold but introspective thinking.”