New values is certainly a choice way to describe what Iggy Pop did in the post-Kill City days of his career. Is it a coincidence that the first album Pop made without David Bowie in the studio as either a guiding hand or major collaborator is all over the place? Not really. Pop has always been a provocateur, a punk spirit who could never turn that off to make a more considered, nuanced album. It was turned off or up to eleven, no in-between. That attitude is what makes his work so explosive, and when it comes together with a quality of writing found on Lust for Life and The Idiot, it’s a mesmerising experience. Scott Thurston is drafted in to fill that Bowie-shaped collaborator hole, and it works well enough for New Values. Pop never shied away from pop, much to the dismay of some fans who heard the punk rebel turn his attention to new wave structures. It works well on New Values, if you can suspend your love for what came before it, that is.
Even with those huge changes, New Values has an inherently familiar Pop sound to it. Groovy sound is the route through a lot of these songs. Opener Tell Me a Story has a spirit to it which can be found in the very best of Pop’s work, solo or otherwise. Pair it with an instrumental break which feels more suitable for The Rolling Stones than The Passenger hitmaker and you can hear Pop adapting to new styles with sincerity. Calamitous clapping on the title track is a little tougher to swallow but all the same, an honest effort. That’s all you can ask of Pop, even if he does rely on a fade out that feels so sudden, so underwhelming, for a song that bridges into Girls. A shocker of a song but an inevitability of any act to make their male gaze the point of a song. Instrumentally impressive songs like I’m Bored end far too fast, the spirit and feel for the track lost because Pop wishes to move on.
To his credit, he shuffles a deck of rich-sounding, new wave ideas that hear him with his fingers on the pulse of the genre fundamentals. Digging in deeper is what Pop had to do next, though that moment never comes on New Values. It sounds more as though he’s playing with concepts than targeting a new angle on these refreshed beliefs. Some experiments with dissonance and grunting on the powerful Five Foot One are a fantastic example of where the song could go, and where it falls well short of what New Values is clawing for. It’s still a fun listen, that much is inevitable with Pop creating with long-time collaborator Thurston, whose lyrical additions and overlap with Pop are, no surprise, the better songs on the album.
When Pop and Thurston hit on that sweet spot, like on Five Foot One, the album soars. A creatively satisfying and daring piece of work is what New Values hopes to become, but it doesn’t offer enough to do that effectively or consistently enough. What reigns is an unfocused and creatively inspired Pop leaping from steady love ballads like How Do Ya Fix a Broken Heart to sweeter losses on Angel. There are more erratic moments than this, but considering how wild a turn it is across two songs with a similar message, it’s quite the miracle that New Values has a sharp edge to it. From anxieties to outrageous proclamations about his future, Pop sounds a bit all over the place of New Values, but to those in the same situation, that is the point. A dud end with Billy is a Runaway, but what comes before is vintage Pop. Messy, erratic, and a real good time if you give into its out-there charms.
