Art Brut: Art Brut vs. Satan

Three albums in, and Art Brut still sound awful. The singer can’t sing (he kind of talks his way through the songs) and the band sounds like it’s making it up as it goes along. But I’ll be jiggered if it’s not intriguing all the same. I can’t say that I’d want to listen to it all the time—after a while Art Brut begins to sound like a fun-loving tornado siren. They’ve got energy and creativity. I’ll even give it to them that the band name fits: it’s outsider art. If you can tolerate it, you’ll probably love it.

Rating: * * * *

Iggy Pop: Preliminairies

The first song, a schmaltzy French ditty, made me think I had the wrong Iggy Pop. The punk icon attempts a literate (or more appropriately, literary) album filled with New Orleans ragtime with horns and rambling pianos. It takes a song called “Nice to Be Dead” to bring out the guitars and evoke from Mr. Pop his more natural vocal style. As it turns out, shouting suits the man far better than his unsteady, cringe-worthy baritone. In addition to the music, Preliminairies treats us to a few odd spoken word interludes, including a story about a dead dog. Bon appétit.

Rating: * *