Préliminaires

Untitled

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	66/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Drowned in Sound	4/10
The Guardian
NME	8/10
Pitchfork	5.4/10
Rolling Stone
Spin

Préliminaires is the fifteenth studio album by American rock singer Iggy Pop, released on May 25, 2009 by record label Astralwerks. It was inspired by Michel Houellebecq's novel La Possibilité d'une île (The Possibility of an Island).

Style

Unlike his previous works, the album is less rock-oriented and was said by Pop to be a "quieter album with some jazz overtones" with its sound influenced by New Orleans jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. Pop also admitted that the album is his response to being "sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music".

The album even includes a cover of the 1940s French jazz standard "Les feuilles mortes" (Autumn Leaves), which Iggy sings in French. The song is most associated with such artists as Yves Montand and Edith Piaf. The album also includes "How Insensitive", a jazzy bossa nova standard composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim, and "Nice to Be Dead", more of a swamp rock song.

The visuals for the album were created by French-Iranian graphic novelist and animated film director Marjane Satrapi. Marjane and Iggy met when she asked him to voice one of the characters in the English-language version of her Academy-award nominated movie Persepolis in 2007.

Rolling Stone called it "definitely the weirdest record of the punk godfather's career".

Track listing

1. "Les feuilles mortes" (music: Joseph Kosma; lyrics: Jacques Prévert) – 3:55
2. "I Want to Go to the Beach" (Iggy Pop) – 2:53
3. "King of The Dogs" (Lil Armstrong, Iggy Pop) – 2:02
4. "Je sais que tu sais" (Lucie Aimé, Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 3:12
5. "Spanish Coast" (Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 3:59
6. "Nice to Be Dead" (Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 2:49
7. "How Insensitive" (Vinicius De Moraes, Ray Gilbert, Antônio Carlos Jobim) – 3:03
8. "Party Time" (Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 2:08
9. "He's Dead / She's Alive" (Iggy Pop) – 2:00
10. "A Machine for Loving" (Hal Cragin, Michel Houellebecq, Iggy Pop; English translation by Gavin Bowd) – 3:16
11. "She's a Business" (Hal Cragin, Iggy Pop) – 3:11
12. "Les feuilles mortes (Marc's Theme)" (music: Joseph Kosma; lyrics: Jacques Prévert) – 3:53

Personnel

• Iggy Pop – vocals, concept, guitar on "He's Dead, She's Alive"
• Hal Cragin – bass, guitar, percussion, keyboards, drum programming
• Kevin Hupp - drums, congas
• Jon Cowherd – piano on "King of the Dogs"
• Clarence L. Banks - trombone on "King of the Dogs"
• Tim Ouimette – trumpet on "King of the Dogs"
• Marc Phaneuf- clarinet on "Les feuilles mortes", "King of the Dogs" and "Les feuilles mortes (Marc's Theme)"
• Lucie Aimé - vocals on "Je sais que tu sais"

"King of the Dogs" contains elements of "King of the Zulus" written by Lillian Hardin Armstrong

Charts

Chart (2009)	Peak position
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)	76
Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)	39
French Albums Chart	19
Swedish Albums Chart	44
Swiss Albums Chart	48
Billboard 200	187

External links

• Préliminaires at Discogs (list of releases)