New Stooges album

A leaked copy of the new Stooges album, "The Weirdness", fell off the back of a virtual truck over the weekend. First impressions are that it's very ordinary. I badly wanted this to be a masterwork, maybe approaching the brilliance of "Funhouse". It's not to be. There'll be a full review at the I-94 Bar in due course but here's a quick and dirty take:

Ordinary songs, ordinary production. Steve Albini has a rep for giving a band their heads in the studio and being hands-off, but this is ridiculous. Rock Action's drums are drier than a dead dingo's donger but Watt's bass rumble is MIA. When Ron Asheton launches into those characteristic wah-wah solos (all too rarely), the guitar's compressed tighter than a Scotsman's wallet or buried. To be really blunt, Iggy's vocals are the weakest thing about the album. Apart from the songs. Lyrical observations on the ordinariness of everyday life, they end up sounding like a dumbed-down parody, sung by a Rolls Royce driving leathery old guy. "My dick is turning into a tree", indeed.