After 33 Years It's Like They Never Left
It's been 33 years since The Stooges last produced an album, and strangely enough almost a quarter of a century later the band still have the same insouciant rock swagger about their music that made listeners feel liberated the first time around. Unlike many reformed groups The Stooges' new record doesn't make you feel sad that you missed the band first time around, but excited by the brand new squalling guitars and raucous riffs emitted from your stereo.
Kicking off with a fricassee of fun called, 'Trollin' Iggy is at the helm of his troupe of wired musicians, a late night, parental advisory ode to picking up ladies with a dark undercurrent. 'You Can't Have Friends' is a brief frisson of youthful fun that will shame all the pop-punk groups of present who create immature attempts at this track. Original Stooges' guitarist Ron Asheton has lost none of his flair with fiendish guitar licks all over the place; the filthy crescendo in, 'Idea Of Fun', which lights up Iggy's storming vocal cries of, "My idea of fun is killing everyone" is worth a mention.
Title track, 'The Weirdness' is, converse to its name, one of the most laidback tune with rich, soulful vocals resting on a swaying guitar tune, another odd more jazzed-up number is 'Passing Cloud' which sees the addition of bluesy sax in a reflective and chilled chorus, before the usual chugging guitar kicks in.
Meanwhile the handclaps and off-kilter rhythm of 'Greedy Awful People' are defiantly punk at its most hip-shaking, 'She Took My Money' furthers the misanthropic feeling with a catchy riff that makes it an instant hit. Then there's the distinctly un-PC 'End of Christianity', which declares that, "When it's a black girl you cannot resist, it's the end of Christianity", this particular tune does begin to get a little repetitive largely resting on its outlandish lyrical content to pack the punches, this is the one point where the band sound dated as they clearly haven't realised that lyrics about religion are no longer shocking, unchartered territory.
Brash, rocking and quintessentially punk, The Stooges are back and they mean business with a new collection of bruising basslines, howling guitars and throbbing anthems.