In case you’ve been in a rock n’ roll coma, Iggy Pop and Josh Homme have recorded a secret album, and will release this new album, Post Pop Depression, tomorrow. Ahead of its release, the record is streaming in full via NPR. Listen to it below.
Pop says it could be his final record. The nine-track album was recorded at Homme’s home studio in Joshua Tree, as well as his Pink Duck studio in Burbank. Supporting musicians include Dean Fertita of QOTSA and Dead Weather on guitar and keyboards, and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders. They are also accompanying Homme and Pop on a tour which kicked off last night, along with Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar and Matt Sweeney on bass.
The pairing was organic – Pop reached out to Homme by text and asked if he was interested in writing some songs. Homme leapt at the chance. After a phone call, Homme received a rock star care package filled with potential lyrics, other writings and, per Homme’s request, notes about his Berlin days with Bowie. Three months later Homme was ready to deliver on his inspirations.
Iggy praised Homme, who “took me to a place I’d never been,” while the Queens of the Stone Age nucleus added: “This was to go where neither of us had gone before. That was the agreement. And to go all the way.”
Homme is no stranger to secret projects, with his voluminous installments of the beloved and mysterious Desert Sessions dropping like diamonds from a clear desert sky, at random. Then, of course, there’s his Them Crooked Vultures project, whose existence I had the honor of breaking to the world and whose self-titled 2009 release may just be the best goddamn rock album of all time.
“In American life, because it’s so hypercompetitive, what happens when you’re finally useless to everyone except hopefully not yourself?” Pop mused. “What happens then? And can you continue to be of use to yourself? I had a kind of character in mind. It was sort of a cross between myself and a military veteran.”
“He is the last one of the one-of-a-kinds,” Homme said of Pop. “This is a much deserved victory lap for a man who’s not sure if he won. But he did. He may have tunneled underground for lots of that, but he still got to the destination.”
