![]() The voice of desperation and rebellion has shifted to more of a narrative tone depicting late night, low life street images. In his second collaboration with David Bowie, Pop's sound has become less abrasive and more commercial. The result is a collection of non-songs so mechanistic, unfeeling, and ugly as to make Kraftwerk sound like Robert Johnson in comparison. well, let's just say that the contempt performer/producer/Svengali David Bowie feels for both Iggy and their mutual audience has never been so obvious. The cover photo is a giveaway Iggy looks (perhaps deliberately) like a real idiot. This new one, hard on the heels of The Idiot - which was so ridiculous that even diehard fans complained - is merely sad. The only time he ever accomplished that little trick was on Raw Power, and that was basically a showcase for James Williamson's haunted guitar playing. It's all very well to talk about his vision of the darker recesses of the human soul, but it would be nice if he threw in some music (or rock-and-roll, which is not always the same thing) to go with it. If you're not from Detroit it requires a real act of faith to appreciate Iggy Pop. I just wish there were some way that your music could be important and your life happy at the same time. Here comes success, Iggy, and you deserve it more than just about any perform I've ever seen or heard. To make any art in the future, he would probably have to start self-destructing, and neither he nor any of us really want to see him crawling through the broken glass again. It is questionable, though, whether Iggy has anything important left to say. Like Lou Reed, Iggy is most likely headed on a course just left of center, bizarre enough to attract those inclined toward something different but safe enough not to scare them away. With David Bowie as producer and guide, he is actually realizing a career for the first time. That he has come back from the edge relatively intact is almost a miracle. As rock's truest bad boy, Iggy led the Stooges with a vision of frustrated, depressed and angry young adult life that will probably never be seen (or dared) again. Were this just another album by just another artist, that might be the end of it, but Iggy Pop has never been just another entertainer. Side two is considerably weaker, with a pair of overdrawn ballads, an infectious throwaway and one bona fide winner, the ominous "Neighborhood Threat." Side one is quite good, starting with the title cut, which rocks with a Sandy Nelson-like drum style while Iggy delivers his survivor message to the masses, and continuing to the closing track, "Tonight," easily the most straightforward pop song Iggy has written. ![]() Taken purely on its own terms, Lust for Life is a successful album. Iggy Pop's second comeback album leaves one with ambivalent feelings: glad that Iggy is alive, apparently well, writing, singing and performing again, but upset because his new stance is so utterly unchallenging and cautious. ![]()
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