For his 19th studio album, Iggy Pop will release an album of mostly French cover songs. The album is titled Après . This news shouldn’t come entirely as a shock, as it follows his 2009 English/French album, Préliminaires. Après literally translates to “after.” Most interestingly, the 10-track album will also include version of songs by the Beatles, Yoko Ono and Frank Sinatra, in addition to Serge Gainsbourg, Edith Piaf and more.
Iggy wrote the following message in a note posted on his Facebook page:
“All popular music forms of today get their strength from the beat. Rap, hip-hop, metal, pop, and rock producers will tell you that the beats they use imitate the human heartbeat and that is where the power lies. The feeling of listening to any of these forms is always some variation on excitement, but before the birth of the blues there was another form of popular song, in which the timing comes from the human breath and the feelings are much more about emotion. These older ways of expression were known variously as bel canto, chanson, plainsong or just folk music. I’ve always loved this other feeling, one that is intimate, sometimes a little sad, and does not try to beat me on the head. So I wanted to sing some of these songs myself, hoping to bring the feeling I felt as a listener to my listeners through my voice. Many of these songs are in French, probably because it is French culture which has most stubbornly resisted the mortal attacks of the Anglo-American music machine.“
Check out the full tracklisting below.
Après
1. “Et Si Tu N’Existais Pas” (Joe Dassin)
2. “La Javanaise” (Serge Gainsbourg)
3. “Everybody’s Talkin’” (Harry Nilsson)
4. “I’m Going Away Smiling” (Yoko Ono)
5. “La Vie En Rose” (Edith Piaf)
6. “Les Passantes” (Georges Brassens)
7. “Syracuse” (Henri Salvador)
8. “What Is This Thing Called Love?” (Cole Porter)
9. “Michelle” (The Beatles)
10. “Only the Lonely” (Frank Sinatra)
