Iggy Pop: "Gardenia"
After the last pair of Stooges records, it was looking less and less likely that Iggy Pop would release another truly great song in his lifetime. Sure, there have been inspired moments and amazing performances, but his recorded output has been decidedly on the wane after he released back-to-back masterworks in 1977—The Idiot and Lust for Life. Sometimes, though, when you’ve been going for decades, you just need new scenery and collaborators for a creative kick in the pants. He holed up in Joshua Tree with Josh Homme, Dean Fertita (QOTSA/Dead Weather), and Matt Helders (Arctic Monkeys) to work on his new album Post Pop Depression, and he did what seemed unthinkable—he made another great Iggy Pop song.
“Gardenia” is partially hypnotic thanks to the dreamy, trembling guitar drone, which sounds like something off mbv. His voice, ever the weighty and authoritative instrument, is given space to exist on its own, which is important for his poetry here. He’s always exuded this dual nature of being absolutely charming—smiling, genteel—but behind those kind eyes is the former junkie slimeball that rolled around in glass. Both personalities are key to this song.
He’s absolutely enamored of a woman, Gardenia, but he’s not singing some doe-eyed first date tune—this is a song about cheap motels and how “there’s always a catch in the darkness.” And the chorus, sung with beautiful harmonies from Homme, isn’t about how he loves her—it’s about how he wants to boss her around. This is a legacy artist foregoing romantic pop tropes and plunging the dagger into arduous, real-life dilemmas—loving someone despite their flaws, wondering if you’re ruining their life by entangling it with your own, and finding satisfaction in telling another person what to do.
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