Iggy Pop - Blah-Blah-Blah (1986)

Album Review:

In 1983, Iggy Pop's career was in shambles, but an unexpected windfall arrived thanks to Iggy's frequent benefactor David Bowie. Bowie recorded "China Girl," a song Bowie and Pop co-wrote, for his album Let's Dance, earning Iggy some large (and much-needed) royalty checks. Wisely realizing he was running out of second chances, Iggy decided to make the most of his good fortune; he steered clear of drugs, learned to cook his own meals, started putting money in the bank, and used his savings to bankroll a new album. David Bowie offered to help, and together they came up with Blah Blah Blah, the most calculatedly commercial album of Iggy's career. Like The Idiot, Blah Blah Blah was heavily influenced by Bowie's input; however, while The Idiot was made by a man creating intelligent and ambitious art rock, Blah Blah Blah is the work of a popmeister looking for hits and not afraid to sound cheesy about it. In the liner notes, a member of Duran Duran is thanked for the loan of a drum machine, and that speaks volumes about the production; Blah Blah Blah is slick in a very '80s way, dominated by preprogrammed percussion and swirling keyboards. And in the four years since Zombie Birdhouse, Iggy hadn't come up with much in the way of material; the only truly memorable tracks are "Real Wild Child (Wild One)," a neat bit of electro-processed rockabilly (previously a hit for Australian rocker Johnny O'Keefe), and the moody "Cry for Love," co-written by former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. Both of these songs were minor hits, so Blah Blah Blah succeeded on its obviously commercial terms, but that doesn't change the fact it's one of Iggy's least interesting albums, and has dated worse than almost anything he's ever recorded. –by Mark Deming, allmusic.com.


Album Details:

Artist: Iggy Pop
Album: Blah-Blah-Blah
Label: A&M Records
Catalogue #: CD 5145/DX 827
Matrix #: 75021 5145 2 01%
Bar Code: 0 7502-15145-2
Format: CD
Type: Album
Country: US (Made in U.S.A. / Printed in the U.S.A.)
Release Date: 1986
Number of Discs: 1
Language: English
Time: 46:13
Rating: 2.5 stars (allmusic.com)
Genre: Pop/Rock
Styles: Alternative/Indie Rock, Proto-Punk, Detroit Rock, Album Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Dance-Rock, Hard Rock, Contemporary Pop/Rock


Tracklist:

01 Real Wild Child (Wild One) - 3:39
02 Baby, It Can't Fall - 4:15
03 Shades - 5:58
04 Fire Girl - 3:34
05 Isolation - 4:36
06 Cry for Love - 4:29
07 Blah-Blah-Blah - 4:33
08 Hide Away - 5:01
09 Winners and Losers - 6:18
10 Little Miss Emperor - 3:51

Total Playtime: 46:13


Credits:

Artwork By [Art Direction, Design] - Nick Egan
Backing Vocals - Kizilcay , Pop , Armstrong
Drums, Bass, Synthesizer, Arranged By [Strings] - Erdal Kizilcay
Engineer - David Richards
Guitar [All] - Kevin Armstrong
Photography - Michael Halsband
Producer, Mixed By - David Bowie , David Richards
Tape [Tape Op] - Justin Case (5)
Written-By - David Owens, John Greenan, Johnny O'Keefe (track: 1)
Written-By - David Bowie (tracks: 2,3,4,5,7,8,10), Iggy Pop (tracks: 2 to 10), Steve Jones (tracks: 4,6,9)


Lineage:

Silver CD -> EAC (Secure Mode / Offset Corrected) -> Test & Copy Image & Create CUE Sheet -> Uncompressed -> WAV (1411 Kbit/s / 44100 Hz / 16 Bits / 2 Channels) -> FLAC frontend -> FLAC (compression level 8) -> AvaxHome


Extra info:

- Codec used for lossless compression: libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917.
- Samplerate: 44100 Hz Stereo / Bitrate: 16 bits.
- Full Scans in 300 dpi, jpg format in highest quality.
- EAC extraction LOG file included.
- Cuesheet files included (WAV & FLAC).
- MD5 checksums included.
- None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database.