Preliminaires - Mojo Review

Hey, don't know if im allowed to post this or not, but other forums are posting bob dylan reviews so im assuming its ok, ill take it down if its not, if its ok ill scan it in soon

This Time It's Serious

Zut Alors! Pop's gone jazz! And he's done it in French!
says Sylvie Simmons

Iggy Pop
***
Preliminaires

"It's quieter, with some jazz overtones," says Iggy in a web video of his new concept album-cum-film score. "I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitar banging out crappy music." Sitting on a pollside lounger in what might be his Miami backyardm he talk s of his love for "ballads, New Orleans era jazz" and French literature - specifically the 2005 novel The Possibility of an Island, by provocateur Michel Houellebecq. It's about sex, death and the human condition and a dog.
Asked for a soundtrack to a Houellebecq documentary, Iggy came up with these 12 numbers; a mix of originals and covers, in French. As Iggy also says, he made this album "especially for France and for people who speak French".
So what's in it for the fans who aren't or don't? Curiosity value, certainly. Poet crooner Iggy's done slow, dark songs before - on Avenue B (1998), his brilliant, audacious follow-up to the 'idiot thugs with guitars' Naughty Little Doggie. Like Avenue B, Preliminaires also has jazz elements, spoken word, dark humour and contemplation - but though audacious, its not brilliant.
It starts and ends with the ballad Led Feuilles Mortes, the old Yves Montand song (translation; 'dead leaves' or 'Autumn Leaves'), on which the deep voice reciting French poet Jacque Prevert's words of doomed love seems to channel Gainsbourg. The arrangement is far less appealing; the sort of synth-laden, slow dance disco rock that gave French music a bad name, topped with a jazzy horn solo. Je Sais Que Tu Sais - girlish French female lead; Iggy mumbling way down in the mix - is even more stereotypically Gallic. Leaping continents, Iggy covers Astrud Gilberto's laconic, lost love classic How Insensitive as a brooding blend of himself and Bowie. Interestingly, She's A Business - distorted blues chant over a pounding beat - segues into a revisit of Nightclubbing from his 1977 Bowie collaboration The Idiot.
It's one of the better numbers. But these are the real stand-outs. He's Dead / She's Alive - Iggy as Howlin' Wolf, just gnarly blues voice and guitar; King of the Dogs - Louis Armstrong-style jazz with a Waitisan angularity and droll lyrics; and the one true rock song, Nice to be Dead, the cynicism and lassitude in Iggy's words and voice mirroring Houellebecq's literary style.
'Preliminaires' incidentally, means 'foreplay'. The album, likewise, has its moments, but you really couldn't call it the main event.

any thoughts?

i actually liked Naughty Little Doggie lol, im watching the video for To Belong atm, spose it is a bit ''thugs with guitars'' but i think that was the intention

i dont think avenue b was all it could have been, i think its great, i like it a lot actually, thought i prefer nightclubbing I, its one of my favourite iggy boots, and it actually made me undetstand what avenue b was about, after that i 'got' it, or understood it, but i think it had more to give, or didnt live up to the potential

anyway, i havent heard preliminaires, but i imagine this is a fair review, i always trust mojo's reviews and after all this was just a soundtrack album, still cant wait for it though!

ha.. didn't know Préliminaires means 'foreplay'.. wow.. bit of a sad foreplay.
HJW, I first need to hear the album before I can say anything what makes sense.

that remark: "..Nice to be Dead, the cynicism and lassitude in Iggy's words and voice mirroring Houellebecq's literary style."
this remark is putting me extremely off.
cynicism and lassitude is an old and worn out theme.
The only thing that keeps me really going for this album is > Iggy's voice

homesickjameswilliamson wrote:

Hey, don't know if im allowed to post this or not, but other forums are posting bob dylan reviews so im assuming its ok, ill take it down if its not, if its ok ill scan it in soon

Since you ask, it's a breach of copyright. The Dylan forums are breaching copyright too.

yeh, i thought so, thanks donald

so, should i take it down?

well, im sorry, and i dont claim ownership or anything, just saw people do it elsewhere so assumed it was ok, and it is an iggy review its hardly like i leaked the album

speaking of, any news on leaking the album? lol

So, what they're saying is it's crap?

I disagree with my esteemed colleague.

I got the album this morning.. I think it's the most intriguing thing Iggy's done for years.

For one thing, it really shows off that terrific voice. It could have been a bit more extreme sonically... and maybe even more emotionally naked, like the RIck Rubin Johnny Cash albums. But I think it's brave, and well worth the price of admission.

I know it's early days, but I think this is my favrouite Iggy album since American Caesar, it's certainly the most adventurous.

Quote :

I know it's early days, but I think this is my favrouite Iggy album since American Caesar, it's certainly the most adventurous.

i thought the exact same thing after hearing it a couple times, its very good, very dark, very french, you can hear what iggy meant by an album for the french, its very gainsbourg, but also cohen and tom waits as well

its very good, and some of his best lyrics in a while, i couldnt stop smiling for some reason after i heard ''i want to go to the beach / i dont care if its decadent'' i just thought that was an amazing line, i made everyone around me listen to it lol, fell on deaf ears, but i still think its a great song