Released: 2019

Genres: Art Rock, Poetry, Spoken-Word, Ambient, Dark Jazz

The Musiquarium’s Every Loser Review Score: 5 out of 10

After two poorly-received, legacy-tarnishing Stooges reunion albums, Iggy Pop had a comeback with his 2016 album Post Pop Depression, thanks to the influence of Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme (along with his fellow bandmate, Dean Fertita and Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys). With Free, Iggy Pop is on the comedown of that album’s tour, freeing himself from the stress and commitment that comes with being on the road, as well as freeing himself from rock music and focusing on jazzier instrumentation.

Free is an ambient intro that matches the visual of the album’s cover. Loves Missing is somewhat reminiscent of the sound of his late friend David Bowie’s Blackstar, and is the only memorable song here. The lyrics to James Bond are quite clunky (“She wants to be your James Bond”, “Nuts melt in her mouth, but not in her hand, no need to figure it out, she just likes M&Ms”), and is a bit confusing (is it about feminism or gender role reversal?).

Dirty Sanchez starts out with some Mexican trumpets, before giving way to some terrible call-and-response vocals and lyrics about online porn, “desensitized sluts playing with their butts”, and poetic lyrics like, “Just because I like big tits, doesn’t mean I like big dicks”. The last three tracks are spoken-word songs with about as much excitement as sitting in the D.M.V.

Free starts off strong enough with its first few tracks, but then devolves into some truly awful songs (James Bond and especially Dirty Sanchez) or boring songs (the rest). A disappointment after Post Pop Depression.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Iggy Pop on Discogs.

Back to the 2019 Album Guide or the Iggy Pop Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard