Iggy Pop Post-Pop Depression & Show # 608

Recorded in secret, Iggy Pop’s Post-Pop Depression started with a text message in March of 2014. Iggy contacted Josh Homme about collaborating together and shortly after the process began. The intention was to create not a heavy record, but a content heavy record. It was to be self funded by both Pop and Homme to avoid outside influences. The two exchanged ideas and Pop even provided Homme with a song-by-song breakdown of his 1977 album Lust For Life. The two brought unfinished ideas to each other and they began working as a two-piece then the remainder of the band was brought in. Hand selected by Josh Homme, Royal Oak, Michigan native Dean Fertita (of The Dead Weather, Queens Of The Stone Age) was brought in and contributed guitar, piano, bass and synthesizer to the album and English drummer Matt Helders (of Arctic Monkeys) contributed drums, percussion and backing vocals.

Post-Pop Depression was recorded in approximately three weeks. The recordings were produced by Josh Homme in Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California and at Pink Duck studios in Burbank, California. “Break Into Your Heart” starts off the album. This dirty garage blues romp was apparently inspired by the path that Iggy Pop set beginning with The Stooges up to 1977’s Lust For Life and can be seen musically as having ties to early Stooges material and some of his more soulful solo offerings. “Gardenia” is a song features rotating synthesizers and a heavy bassline that sounds like it could be a combination of elements from songs found on 1977’s The Idiot and Lust For Life. It sounds like a meeting point of the two, while lyrically the song revolves around an experience that Iggy Pop had in San Francisco that involved an exotic dancer of the same name and Allan Ginsberg. Being the first single released from Post-Pop Depression, “Gardenia” is a perfect example of this album’s content heavy intentions. The lyrics of the song weave in and out of the music like someone reciting a short story from memory after a few drinks. “American Valhalla” begins with xylophone before a sludgy bassline creeps its way in, as lyrically Pop seems to be questioning his own mortality and legacy. This song has quickly skyrocketed up the list of their favourite all time tracks recorded by Iggy Pop.

“In The Lobby” shuffles with the same visceral guitar lines as the ones found on “Sister Midnight” while the bass and drums fill in the background space. Lyrically, Pop talks of “Following his shadow/And It led me here” as he questions temptations, and what seems to be a battle between Iggy Pop and Jim Osterburg. “Sunday” comes in with a Bowian disco groove. The song ends in an orchestral chorus complete with female vocalists and an atmosphere like it could have been lifted from a black and white foreign language film. “Vulture” features acoustic guitar from Mr. Pop and a build up of Western styled instrumentation reminiscent of something from an Enino Morricone soundtrack. ‘German Days” features one of the best intros on this album. A combination of stop and start guitar riffs before descending into hazier rhythms. The song itself seems to be a reflection of a mid 70s period in Berlin as the song drives along with rich, dark textures.

“Chocolate Drops” dips into a soulful groove. Lyrically, the song displays a sense of hopefulness. The character in the story delves into loneliness and passion with a certain intensity. “Paraguay” ends Post-Pop Depression at track number nine. Pop sings of getting away from it all and going to Paraguay for a simpler lifestyle. The song has been discussed in many reviews as it weighs down at the end of the album in a number of ways. Pop has recently stated that this may very well be his last album. And at 17 albums in and being now 68 years old that is understandable. As the music picks up pace with the ending rant, Post Pop-Depression ends with a middle finger, similarly to the way he started with The Stooges. Post-Pop Depression weaves in and out with lyrical content loaded with metaphors, double meanings and musical landscapes that drift between 1877’s The Idiot, Lust For Life and his early solo output. Post-Pop Depression was recorded in the desert in Joshua Tree, California. Perhaps Pop has entered the very same “burning sands” once described in The Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog” or maybe it’s just a mirage. With Post-Pop Depression, Iggy Pop engages the listener and redefines what it means to be a musician and an artist on his own terms.






Saturday Night Playlist:

1. The Teardrops - Seeing Double
2. The Regulators - Cat Eyes
3. Minutemen - Dr. Wu
4. Minutemen - Corona
5. Trout - Burning Fire, The House
6. Kim Gray - Perfume Ghost
7. Iggy Pop - American Valhalla
8. Iggy Pop - Don't Look Down
9. Iggy Pop - Tonight
10. Iggy Pop - Sister Midnight
11. Psychedelic Furs - Flowers
12. Julie Doiron - Soon, Coming Closer
13. Julie Doiron - Taller Beauty
14. Merle Haggard - Someone Told My Story
15. Merle Haggard - No Reason To Quit
16. The Magnificent Bastards - She Won't Do It Anymore
17. Johnny West - Sun Comes Up, It's A One-Legged Segal
18. Johnny West - If At First You Don't Suceed, Redefine Success
19. Benowa - Blue Girl
20. Black Mountain - Florian Saucer Attack
21. Parquet Courts - Berlin Got Blurry
22. Iggy Pop - German Days
23. Iggy Pop - The Horse Song
24. Iggy Pop - Ambition
25. Iggy Pop - Kill City
26. Dead Ghosts - Good Love (Is Not Free)
27. Link Wray - Comanche
28. Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band - Here I Am Here I Always Am
29. David Bowie - Breaking Glass (Live)
30. Eric's Trip - Lightly Feeling
31. Eric's Trip - Nevergrow

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 9. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.