The legacy that Iggy Pop created in just under a decade with the Stooges isn't going to be affected by anything that he does now. There can't be any underestimation as to what those albums - and the messed up performances - meant to people and current music travelers. But in Iggy's attempt to move past whatever boundaries he perceives that he's encompassed by, the singer's looked to the 2005 novel The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq as some sort of scaffolding for his latest disc, simply entitled Préliminaires. And before we even get into this, I'll say that every review that panned the disc might have its specific points to back up those opinions, but it seems that this could have been much worse.

A few years back Iggy saw fit to reconstitute the Stooges line-up with Mike Watt filling in on bass. The album that resulted from that, the 2007 The Weirdness, was probably one of the most ill conceived projects of the decade. When reworking the tenets of a band that's so revered, it only makes sense that failure would be the end result. And while that disc was horrendous, the New York Dolls have released two full length albums of garbage since their reunion that could be considered as awful, if not worse. Préliminaires, though, is beyond listenable when compared to those other efforts.

Of course, the approach taken on this new disc by Iggy isn't necessarily one that people would associate with him. The stated desire to get away from blaring guitar riffs and the like has been achieved. And while another disc of retreads could have been easily calculated, it wouldn't have been fulfilling to Iggy. Critics often forget that whatever disc is getting recorded probably sounds fabulous to the 'artist' in question. So while, Préliminaires seems to be in the process of being universally panned, perhaps it shouldn't be.

The Weirdness certainly met with at least a modicum of consternation, but the artifice that was required for that project is notably absent here. Much of the press around this disc seems to note a distinct NOLA jazz flavor - and while "King of the Dogs" certainly possesses that quality, the rest of the disc doesn't. Each track seems pretty distinct, in fact. There are, of course, a lot of tracks that sport lyrical content sung in French, but the title of the disc - and the novel that this is tied to - are as well.

There's a bit of blues - "He's Dead/She's Alive" - and some assorted exotica, but the main component of this disc is what's absent. There's no shrieking, no wallowing in dirt and no hysterics. That blues track features a bit of "woo-hoo," but nothing that matches Iggy's scream from the late '60s.

Préliminaires isn't going to sate punkers, but with the discs odd inclusion of a Serge Gainsbourgh meets Tom Waits attitude, it should entertain whoever is still an Elvis Costello fan. The disc isn't gonna win any awards, but it shouldn't lose any fans.