Préliminaires

Préliminaires
Studio album by Iggy Pop
Released	May 25, 2009 (EU) June 2, 2009 (US)
Recorded	Early 2009 in Miami, Florida and Woodstock, New York, United States
Genre	Jazz rock blues[1]
Length	36:19
Label	Astralwerks Virgin
Producer	Hal Cragin
Iggy Pop chronology
A Million in Prizes: The Anthology (2005) Préliminaires (2009) Après (2012)

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	66/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Drowned in Sound	4/10[4]
The Guardian	[5]
NME	8/10[6]
Pitchfork	5.4/10[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Spin	[9]

Préliminaires is the fifteenth studio album by American rock singer Iggy Pop, released on May 25, 2009 by record label Astralwerks. It was inspired by Michel Houellebecq's novel La Possibilité d'une île (The Possibility of an Island).

Style

Unlike his previous works, the album is less rock-oriented and was said by Pop to be a "quieter album with some jazz overtones" with its sound influenced by New Orleans jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. Pop also admitted that the album is his response to being "sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music".

The album even includes a cover of the 1940s French jazz standard "Les feuilles mortes" (Autumn Leaves), which Iggy sings in French. The song is most associated with such artists as Yves Montand and Edith Piaf. The album also includes "How Insensitive", a jazzy bossa nova standard composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim, and "Nice to Be Dead", more of a swamp rock song.

The visuals for the album were created by French-Iranian graphic novelist and animated film director Marjane Satrapi. Marjane and Iggy met when she asked him to voice one of the characters in the English-language version of her Academy-award nominated movie Persepolis in 2007.

Rolling Stone called it "definitely the weirdest record of the punk godfather's career".^[8]

Reception

The album received a Metacritic score of 66 based on 27 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.^[2]

The album debuted at No. 187 on the Billboard 200,^[10] selling around 3,000 copies on its first week of release. The album has sold 10,000 copies in the United States as of February 2016.^[11]

Track listing

1. "Les feuilles mortes" (music: Joseph Kosma; lyrics: Jacques Prévert) – 3:55
2. "I Want to Go to the Beach" (Iggy Pop) – 2:53
3. "King of The Dogs" (Lil Armstrong, Iggy Pop) – 2:02
4. "Je sais que tu sais" (Lucie Aimé, Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 3:12
5. "Spanish Coast" (Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 3:59
6. "Nice to Be Dead" (Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 2:49
7. "How Insensitive" (Vinicius De Moraes, Ray Gilbert, Antônio Carlos Jobim) – 3:03
8. "Party Time" (Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 2:08
9. "He's Dead / She's Alive" (Iggy Pop) – 2:00
10. "A Machine for Loving" (Hal Cragin, Michel Houellebecq, Iggy Pop; English translation by Gavin Bowd) – 3:16
11. "She's a Business" (Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 3:11
12. "Les feuilles mortes (Marc's Theme)" (music: Joseph Kosma; lyrics: Jacques Prévert) – 3:53

Personnel

• Iggy Pop – vocals, concept, guitar on "He's Dead, She's Alive"
• Hal Cragin – bass, guitar, percussion, keyboards, drum programming
• Kevin Hupp - drums, congas
• Jon Cowherd – piano on "King of the Dogs"
• Clarence L. Banks - trombone on "King of the Dogs"
• Tim Ouimette – trumpet on "King of the Dogs"
• Marc Phaneuf- clarinet on "Les feuilles mortes", "King of the Dogs" and "Les feuilles mortes (Marc's Theme)"
• Lucie Aimé - vocals on "Je sais que tu sais"

"King of the Dogs" contains elements of "King of the Zulus" written by Lillian Hardin Armstrong

Charts

References

External links

• Préliminaires at Discogs (list of releases)