If you only know Iggy Pop as the leader of the Stooges or as that guy who later graduated from the David Bowie school of pop/rock, Kill City will come as a revelation. It was recorded after the Stooges incarnations had fizzled and before Iggy was co-opted as the next whatever. Here, we find our skinny proto-punk crooner delivering his swarthy vocals atop backing tracks that his sideman James Williamson prepared in advance of the Igster's release on weekends from rehab. Not surprisingly, it sounds the way mid-1970s Detroit rock should — and luckily for us, this is before insanely dated drum sounds and stupid synthesizers commandeered the national soundscape for a decade or so.
Musically, this recording is advanced way beyond anything Iggy had done before. Williamson clearly took the time to invent interesting tracks for his boss to sing over. There are no original Stooges alumni present, and that is both good and bad. The sounds themselves are raw enough and they are augmented by a lot of saxophone and keyboards (more so than on Funhouse or Raw Power). I'd say that is to the positive, since what came later could sometimes be hard to love. But you're gonna have to get used to the architect of punk rock selling himself on a whole different level for his first foray into what could have been more commercial music, had the stars been properly aligned at the time.
