The Stooges
The Weirdness
(Virgin)
The Stooges, man! Fucking legends! Right? If so, The Weirdness doesn’t really show it. The (New) Stooges don’t offer anything new or exciting to the band’s old formula of out-from-under-a-rock post-punk style it helped define decades ago. And it begs the question: “Why bother?” Back in the day this shit was raw and exciting. But nowadays, The Stooges sound flat on songs like “My Idea of Fun” or “The End of Christianity” because thousands of bands since 1980 have done the stupid and sludge equally well or better. In the end this just feels like a rehash for the sake of rehashing from a group of musicians who sound cozy instead of desperate.
Dave Hayden