‘Post Pop Depression’ review: Iggy Pop collaborates with Josh Homme for rumbling new album

Iggy Pop has always been a singular performer, but his best albums have always come with a strong foil to shape his far-flung vision.

Following in the collaborator footsteps of The Stooges’ Asheton brothers and the late David Bowie comes Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme for the rumbling new “Post Pop Depression” (Rekords Rekords / Loma Vista) album.

The partnership often sounds like you would expect — with Homme, QOTSA multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders providing a heavy rock backdrop for Pop to glide over with his timeless punk cool.

“Sunday” sounds like funk-leaning, deceptively deep New Wave carved from 1981, even as Pop sneers lines like “The street is as cold as a corporate lawsuit.”

Pop fills the stately “Gardenia” with Bowiesque grandeur, even when he goes off on a tangent about getting ogled by “America’s greatest living poet.” He drops hints about retirement in the epic “Paraguay,” which starts with talk of getting out of the business and ends with a rant about information overload and the people who embrace it. It’s so good, Pop may have found the perfect final song to sum up his groundbreaking career.