IGGY & THE STOOGES

Ready to Die

[Fat Possum]

Forty years after James Williamson last contributed to a Stooges album, the guitarist makes his presence known right away on the band’s latest. Opener “Burn” uncorks with the crack of a drum and is immediately overrun with a tidal-wave riff that’s loud, dirty and dangerous—everything that’s always been great about the Stooges. There’s plenty of that on Ready to Die, an album whose best moments strike that careful balance between glorious sleaze and brutish heft. Iggy Pop remains a vivid, potent frontman, drawling his lyrics over a serrated guitar part on “Job” and sneering through a pounding beat on the title track. Steve Mackay adds blasts of skronking sax to “Sex and Money” and underpins “Dirty Deal” with low, moaning accompaniment. Although Ready to Die isn’t as powerfully raw as Raw Power, it’s an impressive display of rock abandon from musicians old enough to know better and wise enough not to let that stop them.  –Eric R. Danton