From the time
the Stooges first broke onto the music scene in 1967,
Iggy Pop was rock's most remarkable one-man freak show, but by the mid-'70s, after
the Stooges' messy collapse,
Iggy found himself in need of a stable career. The rise of punk rock finally created a context in which
Iggy's crash-and-burn theatrics seemed like inspired performance rather than some sort of cry for help, and in 1979, with everyone who was anyone name-checking
Iggy as punk's Founding Father, he scored a deal with Arista Records, and
New Values became his first recording since the new rock gained a foothold. These days,
New Values sounds like
Iggy Pop's new wave album; while former
Stooges associates
James Williamson and
Scott Thurston worked on the album, the arrangements were dotted with synthesizer patches and electronic percussion accents that have not stood the test of time well at all, and the mix speaks of a more polite approach than the raw, raging rock of
Iggy's best work. But the growth as a songwriter that
David Bowie encouraged in
Iggy on
The Idiot and
Lust for Life is very much in evidence here; "Tell Me a Story," "Billy Is a Runaway," and "How Do Ya Fix a Broken Part" are tough, unblinking meditations on
Iggy's war with the persona he created for himself, and "I'm Bored" and "Five Foot One" proved rock's first great minimalist still had some worthy metaphors up his sleeve. If
New Values wasn't a great
Iggy Pop album, it was a very good one, and proved that he had a future without
David Bowie's guidance, something that didn't seem so certain at the time. [
New Values was re-released on CD in 2014.] ~ Mark Deming