UMUR
"The Weirdness" is the fourth full-length studio album by US hard rock/proto punk act The Stooges. The album was released through Virgin Records in March 2007. It´s the first material from The Stooges since the release of "Raw Power" (1973) and the band´s initial break-up on 1974. The lineup consists of original members Iggy Pop (vocals), Ron Asheton (guitars), and Scott Asheton (drums). New in the lineup is bassist Mike Watt. The album was recorded during October 2006 with producer Steve Albini.
Stylistically the material on "The Weirdness" is garage rock/hard rock and in that respect it´s fully in line with the band´s previous output. Unfortunately the years seem to have taken the wildman aestethics out of the band, and especially Pop sounds tame (and a bit out of key too). So this is predominantly the sound of an aging rock band playing it safe and delivering some pretty predictable vers/chorus based rock songs. It´s not bad by any means, but don´t expect this to feature the fierce energy of snarling attitude of the 70s The Stooges releases. This is a domesticated version of the band.
"The Weirdness" features a relatively raw, "to the bone", and hard rocking sound production, which suits the material well. So upon conclusion "The Weirdness" is a decent quality hard rock release from The Stooges, but it´s impossible not to compare it to what came before, and in that regard this album doesn´t hold up. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.