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Preliminaires

by Iggy Pop

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Iggy Pop takes on the language of romance and puts a decidedly French twist on his new album, Préliminaires. Produced by longtime collaborator Hal Cragin (They Might Be Giants, Sarah McLachlan, Rufus Wainwright), Préliminaires, which translates to "foreplay", highlights another facet of the Iggy Pop persona, focusing more on jazz arrangements and the distinctive, rich baritone heard on classics like "Nightclubbing" and his duet with French legend Françoise Hardy on the song "I'll Be Seeing You".

On the record, Iggy even sings one song in French, a cover of jazz standard "Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves)", a song widely associated with French legends Yves Montand and Edith Piaf. Other titles include New Orleans influenced "King Of The Dogs", a story about a dog named Fox who explains "how cool it is to be a dog, and how much it beats human life", and "How Insensitive", a jazzy bossanova standard composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim. There are also more raucous moments like the swamp-rock stylings of "Nice To Be Dead".

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.