Released on Chris Stein’s
Animal label in 1982, Zombie Birdhouse is an absolutely delicious car-crash of
a record, all twisted metal and noxious fumes. It’s undoubtedly the noblest
kind of failure, the result of two drug-damaged, burned-out rock ‘n’ roll
casualties turning to a mediocre songwriter to cook up a set of classics. It
was never going to work out exactly how they wanted, but it does almost work
out. What’s most frustrating about Zombie Birdhouse is how close it is to being
a fantastic record. It’s agonisingly close. Most songs only needed one or two
more passes to turn them around. There are heavily processed beats drawn from
Latin and Afrobeat rhythms, roaring synth drones, chiming guitars and ominous
piano chords – in addition to the dependably hilarious lyrics, but there’s a
distinct lack of flavour... There’s nothing that makes Zombie Birdhouse an
essential Iggy set, except for its wonderful sleeve art and couldn’t-make-it-up
trash-bag sound.
Ripped to MP3
1. Run Like A Villian 3:05
2. The Villagers 3:52
3. Angry Hills 2:59
4. Life Of Work 3:53
5. The Ballad Of Cookie McBride 3:03
6. Ordinary Bummer 2:44
7. Eat Or Be Eaten 3:19
8. Bulldozer 2:21
9. Platonic 2:44
10. The Horse Song 3:02
11. Watching The News 4:17
12. Street Crazies 3:55
13. Pain And Suffering 3:42
found it cheap and bought the remaster. its still weird as f**k. but fun. its very confuse, production looks for pop but the songs' structure dont fit with it. most of the stuff is good, some great. funny that when you look at bands like shame and viagra boys, you can see that the idea of this record found it's audience with time, as most things do.
ReplyDeleteSadly Iggy's audience is now limited to visitors of blogs who want to re-connect with his back catalogue
DeleteI went through a faze recently where I revisited albums that I had initially disliked or had no impact on me whatsoever. This was one of them. Oddly enough, I enjoyed it a lot more than I did back at the time. Your write-up is pretty much on the nose. An enjoyable car crash of an album.
ReplyDeleteThanx ET. I still find it to be a nightmare of an album too listen to, but it's the Ig! it can't be loved by everyone, just a few...
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