By Jesse Cataldo
The Stooges – The Weirdness – Virgin Records – 1 STAR
Most aging bands take years to reach a peak of embarrassment, unraveling slowly through a decades-long procession of world tours, rehab stints and greatest hits collections before fans find themselves faced with a group of eerie, thinly-coated skeletons in tight black t-shirts and jeans. For better or worse, the Stooges, the band who laid a good amount of the groundwork for punk with their self-titled 1969 debut, have decided to get it all out of the way at once.
Having been broken up for over thirty years leaves them with a lot of catching up to do, but they do almost all of it on The Weirdness, an atrocious disaster that should never have happened. Simply put, this is the kind of music only a 13-year-old boy could (or should) love, cheesed-up guitar rock simmering with immature aggression.
While the Stooges sound on three original albums was slow, sinister and heavy, the newly reformed band now takes a cue from their descendents, overlaying the usual speedy punk chords with underwhelming guitar solos.
The lyrics provide no reprieve. Iggy Pop, who is poised to turn 60 this year, announces early on that his “idea of fund, is killing everyone,” solidifying his out-of-touch granddad approach to the snarling nihilism he affected as a youngster. Iggy’s voice, struggling throughout, sounds especially ridiculous spouting these slapdash lyrics, characterized by malformed, callow rage and awkward sexual wordplay. Trying to regain his youth, Pop has clearly shot too far, landing clumsily in the puerile muck of early adolescence.
The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible – Merge Records – 4 STARS
Through no fault of their own, the Arcade Fire currently stands at one of the most annoying crossroads a band can hope to occupy.
Big, but not officially mainstream, the band’s debut Funeral, put them on the tip of a thousand tongues, a buzz band small enough for everyone to look at them as their own discovery. Yet with the release of Neon Bible and a recent stint on Saturday Night Live the band seems ready to move on, leaving the realm of semi-hipness for a newfound sense of maturity and grace.
Much was made recently of the Springsteen influence on the Killers’ latest album, Sam’s Town, which was praised despite the fact that it wore the influence like a cheap leather jacket instead of absorbing it. The Arcade Fire does the opposite. In expanding the themes of small-town life that dominated Funeral they take on all the vital urgency of Bruce without really sounding like him. Yes, the influence is clear, but Neon Bible exists apart from it, something complete and entirely remarkable.
Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position – Universal Records – 3.5 STARS
It may seem an insult to say that Patrick Wolf’s hair color changes more than his music style, but the output of the 23-year-old English prodigy has been nothing if not amazingly consistent.
Wolf first album, Lycanthropy, was released in 2003, when he was only 19, but stood as a stunningly mature effort, studded with unusual instrumentation and laced with hints of bedroom electronica. 2005’s Wind in the Wires was even better, expanding his sound and reach with a literate and sophisticated collection of songs.
The Magic Position, while not as strong as its predecessor is still a provocative album, replacing its morose draftiness with a new sense of life. The album begins briskly with the tribal drum rhythm and brisk violins of “Overture,” which gradually mounts in intensity. The albums best songs are its first three, creating a marvelous opening triptych that unfortunately is never matched. The album gets less compelling as it drifts into slower territory, but nonetheless remains competent and interesting throughout.


