I was prepared to dislike the new CD my husband came home with the other day. I take pride in believing that I have much better tastes in music than he does, and while I know little about Iggy Pop’s recent work, I was skeptical about the new CD, “Preliminaires. ” An aging rocker trying to sound trendy by entitling his album a French word sounded a bit pretentious to me, but I decided to reserve judgment until I had heard it.
To
be honest, I only know Iggy Pop as the rocker who sang “Lust for Life” years ago and who had been a collaborator of David Bowie, and was a skinny, long-haired guy who looked like he had enjoyed his younger years. I had always thought that his music was less than inspired, and a mix of punk and rock.
Well, we had to drive to another city, so we brought the new CD and put it in the stereo.
I decided to listen to it before I read anything about it or even before I looked at the CD cover.
Right away, from the very first song, I found myself really enjoying it, but it was hardly what I expected.
The songs are almost entirely jazz or have jazz tones, and many of the songs are either sung in French (really!), or have a New Orleans blues tone.
I loved this CD! As I was listening, I imagined sitting in a ...