Description

Iggy Pop proved that if he wasn’t the most stable man in rock & roll. In 1981, Iggy and his record company wanted him to deliver a hit, and Party was a typically eccentric attempt on his part to do just that. On Party, Iggy and songwriting partner Ivan Kral came up with a set of stripped-down but tuneful pop/rockers, and Iggy tried to steer away from darker lyrical themes in favor of relatively upbeat songs like “Rock and Roll Party,” “Houston Is Hot Tonight,” and “Pumpin’ for Jill”. But “Pleasure” proved the old Iggy still lurked beneath the surface, “Eggs on a Plate” found him lashing out at the symbols of success he was trying so hard to gain, and “Happy Man” was so aggressively silly it verged on self-parody. Part of Iggy Pop’s unique sort of integrity is that the man doesn’t seem to know how to sell out, even when he tries, and Party, one of the strangest albums of his career, is living proof.