
Iggy Pop - Zombie Birdhouse LP
On the three albums he recorded for Arista Records in the late '70s and early '80s, Iggy Pop often seemed to be going out of his way to sound like a commercially viable rock musician, or at very least someone who was not quite as strange as his public reputation led people to believe. In 1982, after Iggy's contract with Arista lapsed, he was offered the opportunity to work with Blondie mastermind Chris Stein, who not only produced Zombie Birdhouse, but originally released the album on his own short-lived Animal Records imprint, and Iggy seemed to approach the album as his opportunity to let loose with every musical and lyrical impulse that wouldn't have passed muster on the label that gave us Barry Manilow and Whitney Houston. After the perverse attempt at a dance-pop album that was Party, Zombie Birdhouse certainly seemed like the right idea; Rob DuPrey, who handled the keyboards, guitars, and programming and wrote most of the music, came up with a set of interesting pop tunes, skelet