The Godfather of Punk, Iggy Pop, recently announced the release of his new album, ‘Après,’ a record containing a diverse set of covers of mostly French songs, which will be available on May 9.

Iggy and The Stooges are set to tour Europe over the summer, carrying on stage over 40 years of experience on the music scene. The band re-released in 2010 ‘Raw Power,’ the band’s third album originally released in 1973. The record, though not receiving commercial success at the time of its first release, is considered a milestone of Punk’s development.

With ‘Après’ Iggy Pop, as a solo artist, decides to follow a different approach to music; this kind of experimentation is not new for the artist. The record follows the 2009 release ‘Preliminaires,’ Iggy’s successful English/French album. ‘Preliminaires’ contains flavors of country, blues, jazz and electro-pop, which rotate around the concept of human existence’s futility.

In ‘Après,’ the rock star seems to take a more personal approach; according to his website, Iggy Pop collected on the album some of the songs that have inspired him as a musician. Furthermore, for fans’ enjoyment, Iggy Pop explains in the album booklet about his personal choices, song by song, making his work even more authentic.

Iggy Pop briefly explained the reasons behind this album on his website

“All popular music forms of today get their strength from the beat. Rap, hip-hop, metal, pop, and rock producers will tell you that the beats they use imitate the human heartbeat and that is where the power lies. The feeling of listening to any of these forms is always some variation on excitement, but before the birth of the blues there was another form of popular song, in which the timing comes from the human breath and the feelings are much more about emotion.

These older ways of expression were known variously as bel canto, chanson, plainsong or just folk music. I’ve always loved this other feeling, one that is intimate, sometimes a little sad, and does not try to beat me on the head.

So I wanted to sing some of these songs myself, hoping to bring the feeling I felt as a listener to my listeners through my voice. Many of these songs are in French, probably because it is French culture which has most stubbornly resisted the mortal attacks of the Anglo-American music machine.”

The album will be available for purchasing on May 9, through vente-privee.com

Here is the track listing:

1. Et si tu n’existais pas (Joe Dassin)
2. La Javanaise (Serge Gainsbourg)
3. Everybody’s Talkin’ (Harry Nilsson)
4. I’m Going Away Smiling (Yoko Ono)
5. La vie en Rose (Edith Piaf)
6. Les Passantes (Georges Brassens)
7. Syracuse (Henri Salvador)
8. What Is This Thing Called Love? (Cole Porter)
9. Michelle (The Beatles)
10. Only the Lonely (Frank Sinatra)

Image Courtesy of   NRK P3

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About the author

Veronica Cinti
Italian native, extremely passionate about music in general. Although she appreciates a wide variety of music genres, her strongest field of expertise is Rock music, Grunge and Punk among its styles. Contact the author: veronica.cinti@toonarimedia.com; Follow Veronica on Twitter: @VeronicaCinti

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