The Idiot

This is the music that plays in those scungy record shops where the guy working there looks like he’s never heard of a bath and none of the albums in there were released after the 70s

Wonderful collab between Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Borrowing from some of the best artistic elements of the day to create a sum greater than its parts. Drum sounds borrowed from Joy Division, punk vocals and sensibilities through Iggy, Cold War imagery in the lyrics. This record is simultaneously structured and loose, wild and buttoned up, analog and digital. The sounds jump of the record. Incredibly vital.

Impressive to make an album that I like nothing about. Not the music. Not the vibe. Not the vocals. Nothing.

I'm into it. It's basically just a David Bowie album I haven't heard.

this is what happens when you mix Bowie, Iggy, Berlin and no heroin. Stay off drugs kids

Another album I’m not sure if I’ve ever listened through in full. But what a blinder! Track after track of cool as fuck raw rock. Loved it!

One of my absolute favorite albums ever. Loose, cool and experimental is what Iggy Pop and David Bowie managed to make this album. Iggy's lines delivered with a punk-ish attitude surrounded by pulsating synths and distorted instruments make everything feel intense and wicked. Absolutely amazing

Debauched post punk with a nocturnal vibe and lyrics spilling from the artist's subconscious. Although David Bowie gives it both an accessibility and richness it likely wouldn't otherwise have had, Iggy Pop truly gives the record its raw punk energy.

Bowie and Pop are a powerful duo.

Huge iggy pop fan in general. But I really enjoy The Idiot. The Bowie production is felt very deeply. And I think this album itself really shaped Post-Punk into what it became. Iggy is all over Rock. Proto-punk with the stooges and this one. Dude just makes some really solid music.

This album is a testament to the symbiotic relationship that Iggy Pop and David Bowie had in the mid-70s. Both were lost musically and mentally, the collaboration on this album had them bring out the best in each other while surviving the worst. It is argued that this is primarily a David Bowie album but I would disagree as Pop's influence over Bowie stands out in the rawness of much of this record. The dark keyboard and drum sequencing of Nightclubbing would have sounded cleaner without Iggys suggestions and wouldn't have had the impact on so many post punk and new wave artists that heard this album. It is a shame in some was that Iggy moved away from this type of sound later on

Spooky, which fits well for spooky season. I can hear Gothic and Industrial undertones that support and artsy direction from a punk background. I really liked this.

How have I not heard this before? I loved Lust for Life, but this one had passed me by and it's great. Sister Midnight and Funtime ought to be mainstream rock classics. I guess Iggy just was too far out there to get the mainstream attention he deserves. Jane said 'you can hear Bowie all over this" and she was right, it's almost a Bowie album.

I would love Iggy if his proto-punk Stooges and early solo albums were all he ever released. But then there is this pivot; who knew that Iggy had a type of crooner in him, capable of surprisingly melodic and affecting songs? Iggy is a little weirder and slightly less pretentious than Bowie here, but there is a strong Bowie influence. While this album was not a hit record, the quality of the songwriting can be heard in the subsequent hit covers of Nightclubbing and China Girl. The sound of this record really anticipates and establishes Berlin-era Bowie production, which is, in my mind, a really good thing. The quick and dirty recording methods allowed new sounds to emerge. MVP award to Tony Visconti for managing a coherent and compelling mix out of the tracks. I like the shitty recording quality, which leads to a cool, spacious, noisy, rhythmic, and atmospheric (if unpolished) sound. Iggy described it as "James Brown fronting Kraftwerk", which is a pretty good description, and sounds pretty ace to me. Probably Iggy's best album, in my opinion, and certainly the one I play most. 4.5 stars, rounding up.

This still sounds as immediate as it did back in 1977. Not only is the album still a banger, but you have to give credit to the engineering crew for the crisp sound.

This one was another one that proved totally new for me - Never heard anything from this before. But it was very evident just from hearing it that Bowie produced it. It's a really neat, electronic and experimental post-punk record, and really does great things to that genre of which I'm still not sure where my opinion stands. This is definitely among one of the great post-punk albums though. There's enough variety in the tracks to keep them interesting, and plenty of interesting elements that prevent each track from going stale. It's awash with atmosphere, dissonance and distortion but it all feels like it adds more to the end product, something I think a lot of post-punk fails to achieve in my opinion. I think Iggy Pop described it perfectly when he described it as "a cross between James Brown and Kraftwerk". There's a funky and soulful element to it, but it's very cold, mechanical, robotic. I can totally see how this went on to inspire a lot of industrial and gothic acts. I admit I had to listen more than once to 'get' it, but now I've had an opportunity to give it my full attention, I'm fully sold on it, and I feel it's only getting better with every listen. An amazing record. Favourite: Funtime

I'm biased because a good friend of mine introduced this record to me a few years ago. According to the Wikipedia page, Iggy describes it as "Kraftwerk meets James Brown", and I think that's the most apt description there can be. There's a weird funk-ish, soul-ish undertone to all this, but it feels... sanitized and mechanical. Like it's mass produced (ba dum tish.) It also helps that I've been to Berlin, and I can feel the architecture of the city bleeding through this record. Again, it's biases all the way down. The songs feel somewhat like a session nightclubbing (I swear, I'll stop), maybe as the end of the night is starting to dawn on people, everyone's messed up and wanting another but probably not able to actually handle it. A lot of words, in a rambling order, to say I really enjoy this record. Maybe I should revisit "Low". Favorite tracks: "Sister Midnight", "Nightclubbing", "Mass Production", "Dum Dum Boys"

As a casual listener of Iggy Pop over the years, I really would not have guessed that Iggy had this kind of album in him. It's exceptional, probably the best he's ever done. I love it more each time I hear it. David Bowie's fingerprints are obviously all over this. It has a lot of the markers of a late 70s Bowie album, the disciplined use of repetition and dissonance, the little touches of soul. But what Iggy brings to the table is his punk sensibility, as well as his trademark authoritative, yet detached vocal style. He also wrote most of the lyrics, which were dark and surprisingly artful. It's a collaboration that really works, one I don't really want to stop listening to. Fave Songs (All songs from most to least favorite): China Girl, Mass Production, Baby, Nightclubbing, Funtime, Dum Dum Boys, Tiny Girls, Sister Midnight

BEST BOI

I really don’t know why I hadn’t listen to this before considering Bowie produced this during my favorite period of his. Loved it.

This is pretty solid. I always had Iggy in my head as sloppy punk, but his music is much more fleshed out and nuanced.

As producer and co-writer, David Bowie’s influence is pretty evident on this record: it feels a bit like a companion piece to “Heroes”. If you like Bowie’s Berlin era and Brian Eno, I suspect that, like me, you’ll find a lot to like on “The Idiot”.

Iggy makes a Bowie album. Fascinating.

Solid album. Absolutely love China Girl especially. It was surprisingly experimental in its use of synths and atmospheric style compositions. I can also see why Iggy Pop is clearly an important pre-cursor to punk music.

There's just something wild about David Bowie and Iggy Pop getting so fucked up on whatever that they had to move far, far away from the American scene in 1976 and then go on an all time tear of recording and releasing 4 outstanding albums in a year. 1977 was a special time, before my time though. This album is dark, moody, brooding as they weaned themselves off the addictions. It's hard to tell who was the catalyst, Bowie with the music or Pop with the lyrics.

This is my last Iggy Pop solo album to review, but I'll still have The Stooges' self-titled album to review at some point. I really enjoyed Lust for Life, and Fun House and Raw Power were pretty good too, so I expect to enjoy this album quite a bit. Based on what I've read about it, it sounds pretty interesting. I didn't enjoy this album nearly as much as I enjoyed Lust for Life, but it was still fine. The first side of the album was really great, and "Sister Midnight" really hooked me in. Even with reading a little bit about this album before listening to it, I wasn't prepared for that sound. Iggy Pop's gravely vocals were awesome, and I loved hearing them utilized for something that wasn't his typical garage rock sound. The fuzzy guitars and keyboards and synthesizers were fantastic. "Nightclubbing" was really great too, with its pulsing synthesizers and bass sounds. "Funtime" and "Baby" were good too, but not really noteworthy to me. However, "China Girl" was great. I'd completely forgotten that Iggy Pop performed this song before Bowie did, and I was shocked by how much I liked his version. It fit really well with the darker sound of the album, and I loved the synthesizer and guitar playing on it. As much as I liked the first side of the album, I was pretty bored by the second side. The first and last songs on this side were long, and felt like they droned on for most of their runtimes. Still, it didn't manage to sink the whole album for me, and I enjoyed listening to something that was so influential on goth and post punk music. The early industrial rock sounds were great too, and I feel like being a few days removed from reviewing Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar gave me a better appreciation for that influence. This isn't my favorite of Iggy Pop's work, but it was still worth a listen.

Bad Bowie cover band

I didn't like this album. Something about the dissonance they used and the singing made this album hard for me to listen to. Not my cup of tea. Favorite song: Tiny Girls Worst song: Nightclubbing

There was that one song I didn’t want to change halfway through.

fuuuuuuucking hell more wonky 70s shit, i think it's pretty safe to say this is the author's favourite era. fuck it off. 1/5.

Very nice! Bowie's China Girl is much better.

Glorious Iggy and Bowie collaboration.

I've got to apologize to Mr. Pop because I was unfamiliar with his game. Who is this artist and how could he possibly have come from The Stooges. This is weird, funky, rhythmic, metallic, and a ton of other adjectives that are many steps removed from his punk past life. There's still some of the droning and repetative riffs that I commented on in his other music, but it works quite well here. Mass Production sounds like it was made in a factory and is a great song. But several others like Nightclubbing, China Girl, and Dum Dum Boys are just strange and awesome songs. It's a good thing he and Bowie were friends, because I think it evolved Iggy's music by several levels. This was an amazing album.

Imagine not liking Iggy

5 out of 5. The Bowie influence really stands out this album.

One of the greatest achievements in punk rock ever

I haven't heard this album before, but many of the songs sounded familiar. Both tempoally and stylistically it's between rolling classic rock and brooding, synth-filled Wave. The tracks are all different, and there are only eight of them, so the album doesn't get repetitive. The lyrics are a similar flavor of nonsense to a weird '70s movie, except it actually works well in a song, because song lyrics are mostly for vibes, while a movie should have actual plot and dialogue. It's an essential Iggy Pop album, you don't need me to explain why it's good.

Iggy and the artist formerly known as Ziggy construct a brave new world of gothic industry and stark, robotic grooves that pulse with dystopian decadence.

An ultimate classic.

It's Iggy Pop. It's great. It's always great. It's even short and to the point.

mid morning music but peak post-12 hour shift music 10/10

tis a banger

Wow. This was awesome. Sounded as fresh today as I imagine it did in 1977 - the mark of a truly great record. Going to work my way through the rest of the Iggy Pop discography now.

This is probably Iggy’s best album outside the Stooges. Again, like Lust For Life, it has Bowie stamped all over it and it is probably some of his best work too. The whole thing has great sounding guitars and some stomping Krautrock beats going on. You can hear where Siouxsie and the Bamshees and similar got their inspiration. Love it.

Superclassic album, nothing to add.

Didn't realise China Girl was on this album. It was never my favourite Bowie song, but I now prefer the original

The start of so many things I like.

We can't talk about 'The Idiot' without talking about Bowie. The story is very familiar by now. By 1976, Bowie and Pop were struggling with addiction and desperate to escape their fame. So they moved to Europe to have freedom from their past lives. 'The Idiot' is both Iggy Pop's radical departure from the proto-punk of The Stooges and the beginning of Bowie's frantic Berlin Era. Bowie later admitted to using Pop as a guinea pig to experiment with new styles that he hadn't quite figured out get. For that reason, fans rightfully argue that this isn't a true representation of Iggy Pop. But seen as a collaboration, it's really brilliant. Pop's vocals fit the bleak, industrial soundscapes perfectly. Together, the two artists created a really inventive album, drawing heavily on influence from the German rock scene of the 70s, particularly Kraftwerk. The title and artwork further add to the feelings of discomfort, recalling Dostoevsky and displaying Pop in a twisted, unnatural pose. 'The Idiot' has been cited as a influence of a huge range of artists. Most notably, Joy Division, as it was famously the last album Ian Curtis chose to listen to. It also ushered in a heap of post-punk artists and would continue to be felt through industrial, goth, and synth pop acts for years to come.

I listened to this one after Lust for Life and didn’t like it but loved it this time. I can hear the echos of this album through a lot of the post punk and gothic rock of the 80s. China Girl even sounds like a precursor to Hong Kong Garden. All around great album. It is innovative and the entire album has a unique and consistent feel to it. Rating: 4.8

I'm a fan, and this is a great album. People will discredit it because it doesn't sound like The Stooges, or even later Iggy Pop solo records, but that's precisely what makes it great -- it's unique, it created musical ideas that resonated with many people for many many years.

Love it.

Berlin proto wave coolness. class

This record rules. You can hear Bowie all over it. Just a great post punk art record. It's weird and raw. A perfect little record.

This wasn't what I was expecting and I liked it much more because of that. Raw, unpolished, energetic and fun, but missing the angry I was expecting. Not angry, but Iggy seemed disappointed.

Absolutely awesome, went into thinking this would be self indulgent trash, could not be more wrong.

Inconsistent song structures but absolutely amazing. Just think that he sang I wanna be your dog just a few years later.

The second installment of the supposed Berlin Trilogy, yet very much its own machine and creation, Iggy Pop's The Idiot oozes with its sauntering, swaggering, no less heavy disposition. At best left for dead, and whether it is appreciated or not, Iggy powered through with the help of a change in scenery, a change in mindset and charitable help from a admirer turned collaborator who was also undergoing similar transformations. The result was one of the many documents that best exemplify the feeling of Year Zero that permeated the air in 1977; that, with the walls torn down (regardless of irony), anything and everything can be possible. Never has turning a new leaf looked and felt so electric.

I love Iggy Pop

"David Bowie produces krautrock with guest vocalist Iggy Pop." That's not a negative sentiment, it's badass. Bowie is the king of cool, always knowing how to capitalize on trends, and Iggy is genuine punk (though he hates the term) - their combined experiences meld fantastically and create a coarse, grimy soundscape bemoaning the world the pair wish to escape from. Favorites: "Nightclubbing", "China Girl", "Mass Production".

In college, I dated a guy who was Totally into Punk Rock, so I grew to love it in the late 70’s early 80’s. I think of Iggy Pop as the grandfather of Punk Rock… I attribute him being who launched the genre whether that’s true or not and so think his work is Genius!!

Great album, already listened to it before but glad to hear it again :)

China Girl is one of my favourite songs of all-time

I'm not familiar with Iggy Pop (except Lust for Life) but I enjoyed this album & would listen again.

LP

love!

Iggys first solo debut album. So much history is tied to this release, I highly recommend checking out the podcast 'No Dogs In Space' for a good in-depth history behind Iggy's antics that led up to the album. Also, if you do enjoy this PLEASE checkout The Stooges. Iggy Pop did not begin as a solo artist, The Stooges (the band he was apart of) kicked off punk scene with their energy and stage antics.

👍

Weird, but alluring. China girl is especially cool and nightclubbing has some uniquely awesome guitar sounds.

I know this one fairly well and I love love love it. Easy 5.

What a fucking idiot.

What a great surprise this was. This is exactly the kind of album that I usually don't like, and that's why I had never listened to it. Somehow everything came together perfectly here. Just a collection of weird songs that incomprehensibly work incredibly well together. Also never realized Bowie's version of "China Girl" came out after this one, even if it was only a few years later.

The guitar and synth mix with Iggy's vocals is gold.

All this time I had no idea China Girl had been recorded by Iggy first. I knew he had working history with Bowie, but I just didn't know the extent of it. I was already loving this album, but now I feel more rock educated and totally mind blown at the same time. Incredible artistry, love the musicianship here, and Iggy's thick dry vocals always do it for me. It's good shit.

Prominent bass with some great guitar underneath. David Bowie’s prints all over it. I dig.

Disco redentor, con un Iggy Pop transmutado en Bowie, calmado y confesor, que renace de su abismo mental en su mejor trabajo. Brillante y oscuro. Brutal.

I'm not particularly thrilled by the lyrics, but musically I LOVE this. Part of the mythic Berlin era, it's like Bowie using Iggy as a sort of lab experiment, and the results are a fantastic new direction for the rock and roll animal. Has an exquisite combination of monotony and swagger that endlessly delights me.

Love it so so so so so so much. this album is a little bit in my blood though.

Je ne suis pas assez une connaisseuse pour dire si c'est album est bon ou mauvais; ce que je peux dire, c'est que les chansons me plaisent, Iggy Pop ne ressemble à personne, et j'aime qu'il prenne des risques et suive son propre chemin

Great album.

Najbolji iggy

This is one of my favorite albums - I went through a period where I mildly obsessed with David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, which this album is a precursor. China Girl is absolutely fucking epic. I knew Nightclubbing from the Trainspotting soundtrack, but only grew to love it more when I got into this album. I can't be objective in my assessment since I have loved this album for years, but I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sometimes listening to 1001 albums you get an album that is simply incredible (and one that you have not heard before). Iggy Pop's idiot is such an album - weird, dark, punk rock with almost pop-punk infused sounds about twisted partying and popular culture haunts you throughout the album. I absolutely love it. Highlights for me - China Girl, Nightclubbing, Sister Midnight, but really, it does not have any bad songs.

Good for vibes

Really great album! I felt like this was just another record made by David Bowie and lo and behold, it is produced by him. Even Iggy's vocal sounds like a slightly more used and tired Bowie. So this is already a very big positive. On the other side we have great instrumental music. It's not a classic rock, trying to fit many riffs into a short song. It's more bluesy, melodies are stretched over minutes of the songs, and they create amazing atmosphere, quite on par with best Bowie's albums. I have never heard any of the song on this record, but that's not really a surprise. Tracks aren't necessarily radio friendly and neither of them is a hit per se. But altogether, when listened in the most cliche way possible, with wine, on a sofa, under a blanket, it's incredibly great piece of music. Another favourite to add to collection.

This is exactly the type of weirdo Eno/Bowie-esque sound I'm into. Definitely a departure from the sound of the Stooges, this album is more experimental, artsy, and electronic. I've always loved Nightclubbing & I have a feeling this will become one of my favorite listens going forward. 4.5 stars

Excellent greasy off-beat punk. Nightclubbing is excellent and made the Trainspotting soundtrack famous. Lots of lovely little gestures to Bowie blood but the energy is very Iggy. Interesting, groovy, slunks along in a gravy strut. The production makes the album sound like you are overhearing it from an adjacent room which lends the whole experience an air of cool I can really get into.

There is very little music that is greater than the music Iggy and Bowie produced together.

As others have said, this is like listening to a new David Bowie album without Bowie's vocals. Delightfully weird, it has that Bowie charm throughout. It doesn't overwrite 'Lust for Life' as my favorite Iggy album, but it's a great predecessor.

Man, there's a lot to like in this record. I kept hearing things that reminded me of later groups like Oingo Boingo and Jesus and Mary Chain. I will for sure be playing this again.

5/5. Not a bad song on this. At least on first listen. Might go down later but it was really good.

Welcome to Iggy and David's perverse nightclub cabaret, filled with freaks, ghouls, industrial automatons and other sorts of monsters of all stripes. It's a fun place, where you can have... a "Funtime". At least if your idea of fun is to get spooked by a twisted Iguana whispering bizarre stuff in your ears. Instruments here do not so much "play" as they grind, croak and wince (Bowie indeed had a great turf to play in here so as to prepare for his infamous "Berlin Trilogy"--a.k.a. *Low*, *"Heroes"* and *Lodger*). A clear outlier, "China Girl" rises high above the other tracks in terms of melody and sheer emotions (what a finale on this one--as good as Bowie's later version is overall, the latter's ending is not as intense as in this original version). As for the rest, heartfelt emotions are not in Pop's agenda anyway, so we can't blame him for painting his imaginary venue in all shades of black instead. In terms of relative flaws, maybe the middle of side 2 is *a little* underwhelming ("Dum Dum Boys" is probably too long, and "Tiny Girls" and its saxophone are quite inconsequential, as moody as they are). But everything else radiates with a dark, ultra-violet light. Especially "Nightclubbing" and the insanely tense and brooding closer "Mass Production", aptly named when you get lost in its proto-industrial waves of noise. To put it in a nutshell, it's easy to understand how this record influenced the likes of Joy Division, Killing Joke or Nine Inch Nails. 4.5/5 for this one, rounded up to a perfect grade. Number of albums left to review: 727 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 135 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 65 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 74

omg his voice is amazing

Lou David Pop

Classic from the Godfather of Punk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amJUMYE3Qho

Wow. I didn't know how Bowie Iggy's Bowie album was going to be. I've been mad generous with the 5* reviews this week, but it looks like that run is going to carry on today! I didn't even know China Girl was a cover! Everything plays like Glam on antidepressants, which sounds better than the simile does. The drums go big, the emotions go flat and resigned. It woooorrrrrks!!!

The second album, after Lady Soul by Aretha Franklin, I've been motivated to buy after listening to this. Really its the fourth of Bowie's Berlin trilogy, or rather the first, and that's reason enough.

Very like:)

Fantastic

It's amazing how this seems to sit perfectly on the precipice of the 70's and 80's, using the best out of both worlds. And yet, it also seems like it is current and relevant today.