Customer Reviews

The Weirdness

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

This is not the disaster some reviewers think it is. But the album disappoints because the band still is so much better than this record would lead you to believe. The recent live shows rank with the best shows ever - by any artist. The album on the other hand does not reflect the true power of the Stooges, which is a shame because obviously a LOT of work was put into the making of the album and the Asheton brothers' playing is as great as ever. The main problem I think lies with the production/the choice of producer and the mix. It's all just loud, but never hard, tough or aggressive. It's too clean, too perfect. It has none of the organic feel to it that the live stage sound has. Check "Telluric Chaos" (Live in Tokyo 2004) for the true Stooges sound. The recordings they did in 2005 for a Junior Kimbrough tribute CD also sound SO MUCH better than this album. Another problem is the songwriting, with some awkward lyric choices and weak hooks. Why is "Mind Room" the truly transcendent new song they did on tour last year not included? It's up there with their best work. It has everything this record lacks. The problem is not that the band are past their prime (which they are not - they are at the top of their game), the problem is that this record does not capture their true sound, their true qualities. One wishes Rick Rubin had produced the record, as originally planned.

The weirdest thing about The Weirdness is Ron Asheton's guitar style. There's nothing to be found here reminiscent of the first two Stooges albums. If you're expecting some "No Fun" and "1969" style riffing, forget it.

Ironically, with The Weirdness Ron has concocted a bunch of riffs that give a more than knowing nod to the guitar work on the Stooges third album, "Raw Power", the album which saw Ron move to bass and James Williamson take over the guitar.

The Weirdness sees Ron very much playing a stripped down and lighter version of Williamson's "Raw Power" style, but that's certainly not a bad thing. Infact it makes for a more original and contemporary sounding album than one created using a sackfull of 3-chord "Real Cool Time" retreads.

The surprising let down on this album is Iggy.

His voice is fine, it certainly doesn't seem to have decayed in the same fashion as many other Rock singers the same age. The problem lies with his lyrics. A lot of them are embarrassingly bad, sounding like the immature and angsty scrawlings of a 14 year old who's trying to sound grown up when he's experienced nothing of life....not the lyrics of a 60 year year old who is certainly worldy-wise enough (and certainly well read enough) to come up with material of far more impact and insightfulness.

And unlike the previous Stooges albums (the lyrical content of which had a classic rock and roll timelessness), The Weirdness contains references to modern culture and events (such as Madonna, Dr. Phil and the war in Iraq), immediately stamping a sell-by-date on their relevance.

The Weirdness leaves me with the impression that when the band agreed to record the album Ron and Scott seriously relished the opportunity and threw themselves wholeheartedly into working out the music - whilst Iggy continued largely to lounge around in his garden in Miami, stroking his lizard and topping up his tan, remembering just a couple of days before the first recording session that he was expected to arrive with some new songs...

But.

Once you accept (or get used to) the embarrasing triteness of many of the lyrics, this isn't a bad album. It's not a classic in any respect, it sounds too half finished for that (Iggy's half!). And of course in this day and age there's no way it was ever going to be as innovative or original as the material the band were penning almost 40 years ago. But it is OK.

Musically it's better than much of what is getting released by Rock bands these days (young and old)....but if The Stooges ever decide to record another album, Iggy REALLY needs to try harder..THEN maybe I'll hand out five stars, not three.

A+ to the Asheton brothers.

C- to Mister Pop.

The only thing disappointing about this album is the critical reaction to it. People who claim that "The Weirdness" tarnishes the Stooges legacy apparently aren't (or weren't) paying attention. What we have here is another critically panned record that rocks really hard. The same thing can be said of their first three records. The majority of people hated the Stooges the first time around and it looks like nothing has changed. So it looks to me like that particular legacy is pretty much intact.

If you don't think that this album rocks hard enough then I think that you may not be listening to it at the correct volume setting: maximum. Every song here hits hard and fast and is overpowering at high volume. If people tell you this album has no balls, or that the production is poor, don't believe it.

The truly disappointing thing about all of the dismissive reviews is that no one is actually bothering to analyze the material on the record. They seize on some of the dorkier lyrics and give the thumbs down. What we have on this record, as one of the better reviews has put it, is a profound cynicism. Iggy express hatred for mankind and human nature ("You Can't Have Friends", "My Idea of Fun"). He attacks religion ("Greedy Awful People", "No Christianity") and war ("My Idea of Fun") and links sex with money ("ATM" and "She Took Money"). Songs like "I'm Fried" and "Free and Freaky" also express the disaffected drop out attitude that we are familiar with from past Stooges material ("1969").

More important than the cynicism expressed throughout the album is the recurrent theme of weirdness that's explored in "Free and Freaky", "Mexican Guy" and, of course, the title track. "The Weirdness", one of two Bowie-esque tracks that add a touch of class to the proceedings, makes the point that modern life is inescapably weird. "Free and Freaky" celebrates that weirdness in an anthemic way, while "Mexican Guy" shows us how we got here. In "Mexican Guy" Iggy recounts a history of experiences that were influential to him. He mentions seeing Scarface in '75, and going to see Chuck Berry and Bobby Boris (Monster Mash). One line states "Saw Frank Zappa eat a lonely hot dog / heard Wild Thing played by the Troggs". Based on their influence on modern music you could argue that the Stooges are harbingers of the weirdness that we live with today, but this track suggests that the Stooges are part of a larger (counter) cultural continuum that has helped free us from the straight jacket of 50s squareness and left us with the bizarre world of today.

Stylistically this album is a lot like "Raw Power". In fact there is so much here that is Stooge-like that I'm baffled by reviewers who aren't seeing it. My favorite song, "She Took My Money", has Iggy delivering some sleazy lyrics while hooting and hollering the way we all know and love. Other songs, "I'm Fried" in particular, display the standard Stooges formula of ferociously grinding through a repetitive riff while the guitar and sax freak right out. Steve Mackay's horn work is great, adding the right touch of atmosphere or sonic blitz as needed, just like the old days. "Greedy Awful People" even has the old school hand claps!

I have to admit that the first time I heard this record I too thought some of the choruses sounded dorky, "Free and Freaky" in particular. It didn't take me long to realize that this song is to a great degree an MC5 tribute that would fit right in on "Back in the USA". (Why is it that no other reviewer has made this connection?) No one should go into a Stooges album looking for poetry. There's a reason they are called the Stooges. With additional listens, at increasing volume, I have fallen in love with this record. The sillier lines don't bother me at all. I actually get a kick out of shouting along to them as I'm trollin' down the street in my car playing the record at, you guessed it, full volume.

It seems to me that a Stooges record will always separate the men from the boys. I can't help but wonder if self proclaimed Stooges fans who hate this record are actually Stooges fans at all. It took 30 years for the first few critically panned records to become regarded as classics. Maybe if we give this one 30 years it will be safe enough to be embraced by all. In the meantime I'll be rocking right out. I've got tickets for the Boston show and I really feel sad for people who are passing on the opportunity to see such a great band that, 34 years later, are capable of a truly ferocious attack.

Let's see....so far, we have 9 reviews - three are 5 star, three are 4 star, one is 3 stars, and two are 1 star reviews.

Not sure exactly what those latter two guys were expecting, but, IMO, we got exactly what we needed and what was expected from Iggy and the Brothers Asheton - simple, seemingly brainless, LOUD rock & roll music! The Ashetons, to me, are the real stars here, playing each song as if it's their last. Yeah, Iggy's voice is buried in the mix, somewhat disappointingly, as it's difficult to make out some of the lyrics, which, I'm sure, he'll put across better live. I'm sure that the mix was done that way at his insistence, to make sure that we realize this is The Stooges, and not Iggy Pop or Iggy & the Stooges.

To me, this is a more than decent follow-up to Fun House. (The band radically changed when Ron moved to bass and James Williamson was brought in to play guitar. Those particular Stooges are long gone, but who knows? Everyone's still alive, and they could reunite in the future to bring "Raw Power" back to the stage!) The songs have catchy hooks, many have great singalong choruses (Who among us doesn't want to see and hear a packed theater of fans singing "My idea of fun...is killing everyone!"?), and I'm sure they'll sound great live!!! Are they as good as the "Stooges" and "Fun House" classics? Only time will tell.

As in the cases of the Dolls, Radio Birdman, and Mary Weiss (ex-Shangri-La's), this is yet another overdue and welcome return....and another excellent new album.

To expect the stooges to produce another "Raw Power" is unrealistic. That was a classic. "The wierdness" may not be a classic, but it is still a work that could only be produced by the chemistry of Pop combined with his original comrades, and contains both the simplicity of their debut effort, decades ago, but also contains poetic sober intellectual wisdom mixed in, for instance, the lyrics "The Stooges fight poverty in secret." But they still fight the same things they always have in broad daylight, and with the same bite they always had with expletives, razor guitars, and fun. Iggy asks the question, "I don't know if I'm dead, or just having fun" and I would assure him it is the latter, but fun in this case is not synonomous with foolish. The title track is Iggy crooning like Bowie, "Free and Freaky" is patriotism as only Iggy could parade it, and the rest is a combination of rudeness, compassion,spirituality, anger, solace wrapped in skeletal rock and roll swept out from under the rug of the funhouse, sprinkled with a bit of the glitter from Raw Power, colored blue with some crooning from somewhere in the 80's, a little metallic KO, and not at all a dissappointment. Iggy is more than just a survivor now. He has found that wonderful balance of living responsibly without having to actually give up living. There is less anarchy here, and more conscious design, and it is cool, and it rocks. Welcome back guys.

I would like to briefly respond to some of the negative reviews of this album. I've been a fan from the beginning. I am in my 50s. And I am one of those people who loved "Avenue B." At first listening I didn't like it either: the vocals sounded too far down in the mix, the lyrics were goofy, it just sounded weird. But its Iggy and the Stooges so I listened to it a bunch of times in a row. I tried to get Fun House and expectations of it out of my head. It still sounded a little lame. Then, finally I turned it WAY UP. Suddenly the the logic of the mix popped out at me. The wall of sound over times reveal itself as frankly "awesome." The layers of sound on this album are amazingly dense--like Metal Machine Music with chords and melody. I remembered what I liked about great loud apparenly primitive music--the Sex Pistols, the Dolls, the Ramones. Mike Watt's base is literally welded to the bass drum. This thing kicks. And the "goofiness" of the lyrics reveals a cynicism that is truly profound. Yes, it is the season for wars with no reason. It only sounds dumb. This is a very smart record. I might be wrong--but give this album a chance. It has pleasures to reveal.

Out of the unidentifiable present, of which a fiction-reading coffee-body like me perceives to be 'the future,' The Stooges release a new album. If you're looking for a good lead singer who has felt a lot, Iggy Pop is here. That he still materially exists seems spiritual.

The band behind him oftentimes sounds like they're in front of him, smashing through 12 tracks of rock n' roll, pretty straight ahead.

I'm guessing Iggy hasn't been a regular smoker because his voice is in solid shape. And he's really funny. At the end of the first song when he says, 'Trollin' ... Trollin,' an awkward emphasis especially on the second pronunciation, I think it's so funny.

He's really been through it and on 'I'm Fried' he repeatedly sings, 'I'm REALLY fried,' and the more times you hear it the more amusing and either off-putting or engaging it becomes, depending on if you are allured by discomforting truths.

I think ATM is my favorite track. Towards the end, the guitar work becomes a monster and the creator of this over-powering, blue-collar riff is from another planet. With bullets flying past him, a mutant uses a wide ladel to swipe lava from a black, boiling pot and pours it down his throat which ignites the machine gun in his other hand to shoot out this cranking soul. Or something like that, because this simplicity appears metaphysical.

While the band keeps shooting, Iggy often displays his spooky amount of insight. In the brilliant 'My Idea of Fun' he sings/says:

'Attention thrills and then it kills
They make you a king, it makes you ill
Till your alone, dead on your throne'

All this after desperation enters through an excellent guitar hook 15 seconds in, setting this song on fire.

Some songs don't measure up as well. 'Free and Freaky in the USA' shows promise but quickly sounds more interested in an intellectual chord progression than going off that immediate feel which would have been more right. 'You Can't Have Friends' is kind of like this, too.

For those (seemingly many) who are having a hard time with this being a 'Stooges' record, they should consider that humans alter while the font style of their brand name doesn't. To expect that their fourth cd 30 plus years later would remind listeners of the past seems too inconsiderate and a bit harsh, yet understandable.

Hey, when you listen to this, do yourself a favor and turn up the volume, because despite some soft spots, this record contains some desirable rock n' roll purity, smart in its un-coolness! There is a range of fun, some that's cheesy ('She Took My Money') and some that's got unbridaled male energy ('ATM'). Throughout there is a proclivity towards a sensitivity to various kinds of pain, and that's a major reason this is also a funny record. This is not quite the direction of the more drug-induced flavor of the late 60's and early 70's, a more serious time in rock music in which the Stooges started out as young pups.

It's hard to come by an authentically written and performed rock n' roll song in this present future, and here there's a whole album's worth. It's kind of weird.

The minute I heard there was a new Stooges cd out, I ran to buy it, even though the reviews I had read were mediocre. I wasnt sold on it at first and the sound is slightly muddy, but after a couple of listens, I havent had it out of my cd player in over a week !!!

Turns out to be next to classic Iggy, some lyrics are lightheaded, but most are great songs.
My faves are ATM, My very fave is My Idea Of Fun, the creepy title track with balladeer, crooner Iggy in rare form, ALL stand out but maybe 2 that are fillers.
If you like Iggy and Stooges, GET IT ASAP.
Take my suggestion on listening more than once, you will be sold.

Norman C- Houston

When I first put this on I cringed....Waited a couple days then played it over and over, really gave it a fair shake....What I found is that it's not that bad, much better than the first impression, which I must say was that it was very blah....Of course it's no Fun House or Raw Power, but who was really expecting one? Bottom line is it's pretty good, the lyrics are god awful in some spots of course, but there are some catchy tunes and I thing Ron Ashton puts forth a solid effort....It certainly doesn't kill any legacy, but it doesn't enhance it either....Those that ripped it, give it a second listen, if you don't like it then, I don't know what to tell you.

Been a fan since 1969! Yes I am 51 years old and have been starving for some decent rock and roll for a while. The negative reviews in my opinion
are from those who have missed the point. As some reviewers have already stated...each previous release was greeted poorly. Only years later they have been lauded by critics and punk/grunge musicians. The same can be said for all the veterans from Clapton to the Stones. Every new release being wrongly weighed by past accomplisments. However if you match any of the new stuff these lengendary acts have released lately ("The Weirdness," "The Road to Escondido" or "A Bigger Bang")against what's on the Billboard Charts, the radio or whatever the flavor of the month is, the new hot acts all pale in comparison. You also can't judge "The Weirdness" by listening to it through wimpy IPOD speakers. It needs to be played loud (anyone from Detroit knows that!)dummy. The mix that the
critics whine about will then begin to make some sense. Now that the Stooges and MC5/DKT are back (Scott Morgan's Powertrane too!) real RAWK,
Detroit, hard as nails, in your face, gut wrenching, guitar army, chest thumping music as I lived it should wipe the slate clean again some 35 years later. If American Idol and downloading the hit of the day is the name of the game these days...won't you please instead join me in the weirdness!