Iggy Pop - Party
#228
By Jim Coursey
June 7 1981
Iggy Pop
Party
Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5
Jim’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Pleasure
Rock and Roll Party”
Pumpin’ for Jill
Bang Bang
High expectations can be a curse, and low expectations a blessing. I’m sure that reviewers in 1981 had high hopes for Iggy Pop’s “Party”, with a clutch of classic Stooges albums and four decent to great solo albums under his belt. But they ended up writing it off as “train wreck,” leaving me, as a first time listener, hesitant to dig in. I relish writing 2-star reviews of artists’ I loathe, but don’t want to slog through a lamentable record by an artist I actually like.
Thanks to the low bar though, the album easily exceeded my expectations. It’s lively from the start, with the catchy, horn-laced stomp of “Pleasure” kicking things off. “Rock and Roll Party” continues the trend, with a far more sinister vibe than the song title might imply. I had a hard time reconciling the terrible reputation with the music in front of me.
Mind you, it probably helped Iggy’s case that I often pay more attention to the music than the lyrics on first listen. With the help of Patti Smith Group’s Ivan Kral, the album features a decent mix of driving punky rockers alongside new wave-tinged pop. On some level it’s a solid enough early 80s pop album even if it’s an unadventurous Pop album.
Still, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, and some cuts don’t flatter Iggy’s voice. Bowie could have probably made something out of “Sincerity”, and the horn parts harken back to his early to mid 70s albums. But Iggy’s vocal sticks out here and sinks the whole affair. Ditto “Happy Man”, an embarrassing ska track made worse by Iggy’s exaggerated American drawl and its wayward pitch. Meanwhile, Iggy’s soft croon on “Sea of Love” is downright embarrassing, though the cover eventually finds some redemption with a chorus that may as well have been backed by the Spiders from Mars.
I’ve been conspicuously avoiding the elephant in the room -- the lyrics. Whether the product of boredom, drug abuse, or a cynical and failed attempt at mass market appeal, the lyrics feel at best half-hearted and at worse utterly stupid. Absent anything worthwhile to say, Iggy repeatedly falls back on the subject of getting laid. While that evergreen topic can be dressed up with poetic brilliance or masked by a sophisticated wink and a nudge, Iggy pretty much lays it out as plainly and unimaginatively as he can.
Album opener “Pleasure” might be a silly romp if sandwiched between some better tracks. On “Party” it it’s par for the course, with Iggy sneering his way through feeble similes like, “Sooner or later baby / I'm gonna squeeze you just like a tomato / Sooner or later baby / I'll probably peel you like some old potato / Just give me some pleasure.” The slightly higher-minded “Eggs on Plate” finds Iggy reflecting on selling out, but he hits his nadir on “Pumpin’ for Jill”, a song about a gas station attendant born out of a weak pun. It’s catchy enough, sounding like the Cars’ take on “Heroes”, and it could still be an album highlight were it not for embarrassing rhymes like “When I'm asleep, you touch my feet / You let me know that I am no creep” and “Nobody offers me a tip / I'm going to stay here, pumping Jill's hips.”
Expectations can influence a first listen or two, but an album’s true quality should still emerge over time. I’ve listened to “Party” on and off for a month now and as I finish this review I feel the relief of never having to hear it again. Worse yet, I found myself trying to pick a couple standout tracks to add to a playlist and gave up -- even the most memorable tracks here are sabotaged by stupid lyrics, to the point that calling anything on this album a “stand out” is a bit of a stretch. It isn’t a terrible album, and I wouldn’t cringe if I heard it playing at someone’s house -- I might even hum along. But whether you’re in the mood for pop or Pop, you can do far better than “Party.”
https://open.spotify.com/album/7CJu92mT1fWMYDKQQpJrKk?si=PwUF_20ITE6ZhGLVEVJC0w
