The only thing disappointing about this album is the critical reaction to it. People who claim that "The Weirdness" tarnishes the Stooges legacy apparently aren't (or weren't) paying attention. What we have here is another critically panned record that rocks really hard. The same thing can be said of their first three records. The majority of people hated the Stooges the first time around and it looks like nothing has changed. So it looks to me like that particular legacy is pretty much intact.

If you don't think that this album rocks hard enough then I think that you may not be listening to it at the correct volume setting: maximum. Every song here hits hard and fast and is overpowering at high volume. If people tell you this album has no balls, or that the production is poor, don't believe it.

The truly disappointing thing about all of the dismissive reviews is that no one is actually bothering to analyze the material on the record. They seize on some of the dorkier lyrics and give the thumbs down. What we have on this record, as one of the better reviews has put it, is a profound cynicism. Iggy express hatred for mankind and human nature ("You Can't Have Friends", "My Idea of Fun"). He attacks religion ("Greedy Awful People", "No Christianity") and war ("My Idea of Fun") and links sex with money ("ATM" and "She Took Money"). Songs like "I'm Fried" and "Free and Freaky" also express the disaffected drop out attitude that we are familiar with from past Stooges material ("1969").

More important than the cynicism expressed throughout the album is the recurrent theme of weirdness that's explored in "Free and Freaky", "Mexican Guy" and, of course, the title track. "The Weirdness", one of two Bowie-esque tracks that add a touch of class to the proceedings, makes the point that modern life is inescapably weird. "Free and Freaky" celebrates that weirdness in an anthemic way, while "Mexican Guy" shows us how we got here. In "Mexican Guy" Iggy recounts a history of experiences that were influential to him. He mentions seeing Scarface in '75, and going to see Chuck Berry and Bobby Boris (Monster Mash). One line states "Saw Frank Zappa eat a lonely hot dog / heard Wild Thing played by the Troggs". Based on their influence on modern music you could argue that the Stooges are harbingers of the weirdness that we live with today, but this track suggests that the Stooges are part of a larger (counter) cultural continuum that has helped free us from the straight jacket of 50s squareness and left us with the bizarre world of today.

Stylistically this album is a lot like "Raw Power". In fact there is so much here that is Stooge-like that I'm baffled by reviewers who aren't seeing it. My favorite song, "She Took My Money", has Iggy delivering some sleazy lyrics while hooting and hollering the way we all know and love. Other songs, "I'm Fried" in particular, display the standard Stooges formula of ferociously grinding through a repetitive riff while the guitar and sax freak right out. Steve Mackay's horn work is great, adding the right touch of atmosphere or sonic blitz as needed, just like the old days. "Greedy Awful People" even has the old school hand claps!

I have to admit that the first time I heard this record I too thought some of the choruses sounded dorky, "Free and Freaky" in particular. It didn't take me long to realize that this song is to a great degree an MC5 tribute that would fit right in on "Back in the USA". (Why is it that no other reviewer has made this connection?) No one should go into a Stooges album looking for poetry. There's a reason they are called the Stooges. With additional listens, at increasing volume, I have fallen in love with this record. The sillier lines don't bother me at all. I actually get a kick out of shouting along to them as I'm trollin' down the street in my car playing the record at, you guessed it, full volume.

It seems to me that a Stooges record will always separate the men from the boys. I can't help but wonder if self proclaimed Stooges fans who hate this record are actually Stooges fans at all. It took 30 years for the first few critically panned records to become regarded as classics. Maybe if we give this one 30 years it will be safe enough to be embraced by all. In the meantime I'll be rocking right out. I've got tickets for the Boston show and I really feel sad for people who are passing on the opportunity to see such a great band that, 34 years later, are capable of a truly ferocious attack.

To expect the stooges to produce another "Raw Power" is unrealistic. That was a classic. "The wierdness" may not be a classic, but it is still a work that could only be produced by the chemistry of Pop combined with his original comrades, and contains both the simplicity of their debut effort, decades ago, but also contains poetic sober intellectual wisdom mixed in, for instance, the lyrics "The Stooges fight poverty in secret." But they still fight the same things they always have in broad daylight, and with the same bite they always had with expletives, razor guitars, and fun. Iggy asks the question, "I don't know if I'm dead, or just having fun" and I would assure him it is the latter, but fun in this case is not synonomous with foolish. The title track is Iggy crooning like Bowie, "Free and Freaky" is patriotism as only Iggy could parade it, and the rest is a combination of rudeness, compassion,spirituality, anger, solace wrapped in skeletal rock and roll swept out from under the rug of the funhouse, sprinkled with a bit of the glitter from Raw Power, colored blue with some crooning from somewhere in the 80's, a little metallic KO, and not at all a dissappointment. Iggy is more than just a survivor now. He has found that wonderful balance of living responsibly without having to actually give up living. There is less anarchy here, and more conscious design, and it is cool, and it rocks. Welcome back guys.

Out of the unidentifiable present, of which a fiction-reading coffee-body like me perceives to be 'the future,' The Stooges release a new album. If you're looking for a good lead singer who has felt a lot, Iggy Pop is here. That he still materially exists seems spiritual.

The band behind him oftentimes sounds like they're in front of him, smashing through 12 tracks of rock n' roll, pretty straight ahead.

I'm guessing Iggy hasn't been a regular smoker because his voice is in solid shape. And he's really funny. At the end of the first song when he says, 'Trollin' ... Trollin,' an awkward emphasis especially on the second pronunciation, I think it's so funny.

He's really been through it and on 'I'm Fried' he repeatedly sings, 'I'm REALLY fried,' and the more times you hear it the more amusing and either off-putting or engaging it becomes, depending on if you are allured by discomforting truths.

I think ATM is my favorite track. Towards the end, the guitar work becomes a monster and the creator of this over-powering, blue-collar riff is from another planet. With bullets flying past him, a mutant uses a wide ladel to swipe lava from a black, boiling pot and pours it down his throat which ignites the machine gun in his other hand to shoot out this cranking soul. Or something like that, because this simplicity appears metaphysical.

While the band keeps shooting, Iggy often displays his spooky amount of insight. In the brilliant 'My Idea of Fun' he sings/says:

'Attention thrills and then it kills

They make you a king, it makes you ill

Till your alone, dead on your throne'

All this after desperation enters through an excellent guitar hook 15 seconds in, setting this song on fire.

Some songs don't measure up as well. 'Free and Freaky in the USA' shows promise but quickly sounds more interested in an intellectual chord progression than going off that immediate feel which would have been more right. 'You Can't Have Friends' is kind of like this, too.

For those (seemingly many) who are having a hard time with this being a 'Stooges' record, they should consider that humans alter while the font style of their brand name doesn't. To expect that their fourth cd 30 plus years later would remind listeners of the past seems too inconsiderate and a bit harsh, yet understandable.

Hey, when you listen to this, do yourself a favor and turn up the volume, because despite some soft spots, this record contains some desirable rock n' roll purity, smart in its un-coolness! There is a range of fun, some that's cheesy ('She Took My Money') and some that's got unbridaled male energy ('ATM'). Throughout there is a proclivity towards a sensitivity to various kinds of pain, and that's a major reason this is also a funny record. This is not quite the direction of the more drug-induced flavor of the late 60's and early 70's, a more serious time in rock music in which the Stooges started out as young pups.

It's hard to come by an authentically written and performed rock n' roll song in this present future, and here there's a whole album's worth. It's kind of weird.

When I first put this on I cringed....Waited a couple days then played it over and over, really gave it a fair shake....What I found is that it's not that bad, much better than the first impression, which I must say was that it was very blah....Of course it's no Fun House or Raw Power, but who was really expecting one? Bottom line is it's pretty good, the lyrics are god awful in some spots of course, but there are some catchy tunes and I thing Ron Ashton puts forth a solid effort....It certainly doesn't kill any legacy, but it doesn't enhance it either....Those that ripped it, give it a second listen, if you don't like it then, I don't know what to tell you.

The reviews for this new CD, from at least two major review sources, suggested it was not only sub-par but would forever be a black mark on the Stooges legacy. I first sat down and listened to the opening song and wondered if the professional reviewers were right. It seemed like by-the-book Iggy. But then I remembered what one of the Amazon reviewers had said, something along the lines of, "When you listen to this CD, turn it up. Don't be afraid of the volume. This CD is meant to be played loud." How right he was. Even being critical I'd still have to say the first six songs have an almost relentless energy.

I can only imagine that the big name review sources who were down on this CD concentrated almost completely on the lyrical content and missed the very sound of the CD, of which Iggy's lyrical content is only a part. This isn't hip-hop or rap where a musical snippet is looped and the only variable is the lyrical content. The music here matters and, at its best, it is an ever-changing, ever-charging juggernaut.