Zombie Birdhouse
	Produced by Chris Stein
	Released on September 1982
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
APEC 6000 cover

N o shirt, no service, no problem. Iggy’s artistry turned out to be self-serving this time, garnering positive criticism from the alternative press and resurrecting interest after a spate of mediocre records. (Between Iggy and Lou Reed, Arista nearly sucked the soul from alternative rock altogether.) Now on Chris Stein’s Animal Records, Pop rocks and then some. “The Villagers,” “Run Like A Villain,” “Eat Or Be Eaten” and “Bulldozer” bristle with defiance, punk in the original sense of the word. That said, Iggy shows a soft side that’s equally seductive, including “Platonic” and “Ordinary Bummer.” The accompaniment is raw, stripped-down new wave boiled down to guitars, drums and some bass. The first time you hear tracks like “Life of Work” and “Street Crazies,” you may feel Iggy is trying too hard to push us away. In time you’ll warm to this Birdhouse, marvelling at how the singer can bulldoze through ballads and ballast with the same quirky confidence. Somewhere in here is the truth that all Pop tarts already know: underneath the soused exterior is a very dry wit. I’d like to call this a mature record, except that Pop is an inveterate problem child; maybe the maturity takes place where he embraces his childishness and uses it to his advantage. Eternal enigma that he his, Iggy didn’t release another album for four years, though his association with David Bowie kept him in the spotlight’s periphery. Zombie Birdhouse is raw, rough and rude, but also sweet and sincere, socially charged and sometimes flat-out strange (and it’s nervy, that’s what it is). If you’d just as soon wipe you’re a** with the newspaper as read it, welcome to the birdhouse.

TRACK LISTING

1. RUN LIKE A VILLAIN    3:01
2. THE VILLAGERS    3:48
3. ANGRY HILLS    2:56
4. LIFE OF WORK    3:49
5. THE BALLAD OF COOKIE McBRIDE    2:58
6. ORDINARY BUMMER    (Iggy Pop)    2:43
7. EAT OR BE EATEN    3:14
8. BULLDOZER    2:17
9. PLATONIC    2:40
10. THE HORSE SONG    2:58
11. WATCHING THE NEWS    4:11
12. STREET CRAZIES    (Iggy Pop)    3:54
13. (*cd bonus track:) PAIN AND SUFFERING
    
    All songs written by Iggy Pop/Rob du Prey unless noted

CREDITS

IGGY POP -- vocals
CLEM BURKE -- drums and percussion
ROB DU PREY -- guitars, keyboards, backup vocals & all else
Chris Stein -- bass, art direction
Joe Arlotta -- session engineer
Butch Jones -- mix engineer
Esther Friedmann -- photography
Box Productions -- design

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