There’s always been an air of unfinished business about The Stooges’ legacy. Notoriously unhappy with the final mixes of their last album, ‘Raw Power’, the band dissolved in famously addled ignominy approximately ten minutes before the mainstream started appreciating their brand of mayhem and elevated the Dolls, the Pistols, Limp Bizkit et al to (comparative) stardom. Plus, while Iggy has gone on to general fame and some success , there’s a sense that the other band members have been airbrushed out of the picture.
Well, now music’s first and last gang of true rebels are back – and they’re surprisingly great. Of course, it’s difficult to appreciate a new Stooges album without getting carried away by the fact that it’s a new Stooges album, but multiple listens to the stripped-down likes of ‘Greedy Awful People’, ‘You Can’t Have Friends’ and the almost-funky ‘Mexican Guy’, prove this to be more than mere nostalgia trip. The Stooges are still play with rare passion and intensity, while few bands could sing, ‘My idea of fun/Is killing everyone’ without sounding try-hard.
There are obviously moments when it all goes a bit middle-aged (see ‘ATM’) but there’s enough variety and ferocity on this record to satisfy even the greediest fan of crunchy guitars, underlying menace and not giving a fuck.
