I’ve dabbled occasionally with Mr Pop’s work
over the years. I own a couple of great Scrooges records, ‘The Passenger’ has
always been a favourite track of mine, and, of course, there’s that lusty Trainspotting song, but I’ve
never exactly been a huge fan. My way in
here was, predictably, the presence and song-writing input of Josh Homme (and
various other Queens Of The Stone Age associates). The resulting collaboration
is an interesting mix, which has QOTSA
influences throughout while always sounding like something different. The album’s title is apt – depression is a key
theme (lyrically and musically).
Standout tracks include ‘Paraguay’ (a fantastic closer that’s more traditional Iggy than QOTSA) and the slightly creepy, xylophone/detuned-bass combo of
‘American Valhalla’. Post Pop Depression is a
consistently interesting record, which – slightly surprisingly, given the personnel
– adopts Leonard Cohen-esque stark
acoustic guitar and minimal piano as its main musical touchstone. It’s not all great: ‘Gardenia’, for example,
is pretty dull (I can’t help but wonder why the worst track on the album was its lead single). But
overall this is darkly soulful stuff.
sample track: Paraguay