New Pop

Rip It Up, Issue 23, 1 June 1979, Page 11

New Pop

George Kay

Iggy Pop New Values Arista .The last piece of reliable information I'd heard on the life and times of Iggy Pop was from David Bowie last November when he said that Iggy was living in Berlin and keeping in touch. But New Values not only signals the end of his.fruitful association with Bowie, but also his return to America as the album was recorded in Hollywood under the production skills of James Williamson. : Since his last official album, the below-par live TV Eye, Iggy has switched from RCA to Arista, so New Values is definitely the beginning of another Osterburg phase, Iggy Mk. 3. The fresh-faced eager to please visage that shone from the cover of Lust For Life has been replaced by the. hands bound, chest bared vulnerable pose on New Values. If Lust For Life offered hope in the wake of the pessimism of The Idiot, then the new album is a series of shorter generally excellent songs revealing Iggy's vulnerability and present pugnaciousness. He's always been a man of contradictions, a feature that he shares with Bowie. " Backed by one-man band Scott Thurston on guitars and keyboards, the tone of the album is not unlike Kill City in feel and basic rock structure. The opening song, ..‘‘Tell Me A Story”, besides-being a great tune, captures the Ig’s conflicting emotions; . What must Ido but take a holiday Show me a bill that they can make me pay

Me I 'm just a lucky guy Young and free too hard to cry. Similar true confessions occur on "Don’t Look Down", medium paced and beautifully arranged featuring some tingling back-up vocals from the Alfonso Sisters, and on "How Do Ya Fix a Broken Part”, led out by Scott Thurston on piano. On “Five Foot One” Thurston’s harp is grunting in top gear as Iggy fantasises "I wish life could be Swedish magazines” and he’s in the same state on "I’m Bored” chairman of the bored”, and "Girls" which is not unlike David Johansen’s song of the same name from his solo album. It's impossible to underestimate Thurston's contributions to New Values as not only is he the prime mover in the instrumental field, but he is also down as having written four of the songs present with Iggy. Behind James Williamson and Bowie, Thurston is definitely a third but promising partner for the world’s most goddam boy. Iggy is now back on the road and this time with the famous Glen Matlock on bass. With an experienced new band at his side and an album of new material as fine as New Values the man has no worries.