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The WireNov 20, 2019It’s definitely a mixed bag, but pays off with “The Dawn” in which Lipstate’s guitar exhales in tandem with a spoken admission of small hours frailty. [Dec 2019, p.53]
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Classic Rock MagazineOct 3, 2019Free is easily Iggy's most ambitiously left-field album since Zombie Birdhouse in 1982. [Oct 2019, p.90]
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Sep 27, 2019Free is not as lyrically emotionally resonating as Blackstar but it evokes similar feelings. The reason that it doesn’t fully pack the same punch is that there is a sense that he cannot fully commit. It is a solid album, but just leaves you wondering slightly what could have been.
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Sep 12, 2019The haziness of Free has its share of frustrations—as alluring as the pensive soundscapes are, it’s hard not to wish they were occasionally more sculpted—but there’s something curiously human and appealing about its ungainly nature.
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Sep 11, 2019Though it’s not surprising that Iggy included a couple of left hooks, it hurts a little bit that the album doesn’t have more of the sing-speak poetry and post-rock dreaminess. He does it so well, but only about 22 minutes are dedicated to this sound. ‘James Bond’, in contrast, is a distraction from a compelling new direction.
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Sep 10, 2019It's a moody, hazy, gloomy take on modern jazz. It’s also a return of Iggy Pop the elder statesman, the icon, the legend in his own lifetime. But, more than that, it provides a fitting end to a career, on his own terms, if that’s what he wants it to be.
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Sep 9, 2019True to quixotic form, Free doesn’t build on the success of that record [2016’s Post Pop Depression], Iggy veering off at yet another tangent, courtesy of avant garde guitarist Noveller, aka Sarah Lipstate, and jazz trumpeter Leron Thomas.
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Sep 9, 2019On an album centring around concepts of storytelling and reflection, Iggy Pop’s voice remains phenomenal. It always will. However, an underwhelming feeling lingers throughout 'Free', one which is hard to ignore.
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Sep 6, 2019Even though the 33-minute album comes off as slight, Pop still manages to reaffirm his gift for integrating seemingly opposed impulses.
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Sep 6, 2019It’s the uniquely sombre and contemplative Iggy Pop album we didn’t realise we needed.
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Sep 6, 2019Freedom to Pop, at least on this album, is a certain restrained swagger. The guitars simmer, never boil. The bass swells, and the keyboards shimmer behind him. And all the while, Pop flexes his baritone, expressing himself more clearly than perhaps ever before.
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Sep 6, 2019As a detour from rock & roll, Free is a fine and compelling study of the mind and mood of Iggy Pop at the age of 72, and if it's clearly the work of an older artist, that works to its favor, a pointed contrast to the abandon of his youth but with no less gravitas.
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Sep 6, 2019On the whole, via his work and commentary, Iggy Pop has pushed our world to think and act differently, and he brings that same mission of liberation to himself on Free.
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Sep 6, 2019Pop refuses to ossify and rest on his legacy, Free sees him with new companions: jazz trumpeter Leron Thomas and Noveller, the solo project of Brooklyn guitarist/filmmaker Sarah Lipstate.
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Sep 5, 2019‘Free’ is a liberating collection that unshackles the star from his past and his insecurities, and slowly cracks open a door to version of the future that will inevitably arrive when he’s ready. Wherever that journey takes him in this phase of his career, it’ll be an honour to witness.
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Sep 5, 2019Free often feels like the messiest kind of improv, full of stream-of-consciousness expressions and storytelling that doesn’t follow any particular logic. But tracks like the tense “Glow in the Dark” or the sombre “The Dawn” are also oddly irresistible, loose, thoughtful and free-wheeling.
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Sep 5, 2019It’s a late-career entry that can’t hold up to his priceless back catalog, but it’s also the work of a guy who at this point really couldn’t give a shit what people think. You’ll enjoy some tracks and soldier through others. But Iggy’s still here, and maybe that’s the most important takeaway of all.
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UncutSep 3, 2019The intimate, minimal work done by his accomplices serves to channel Pop at his bleakest and most rueful. [Oct 2019, p.34]
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MojoSep 3, 2019Free, in a good way, resembles his more esoteric work from that time, such as 1999's brooding Avenue B. [Oct 2019, p.88]
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Q MagazineSep 3, 2019Imperfect but never less than interesting. [Oct 2019, p.110]
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Sep 3, 2019Unfortunately, for all but the hardcore, Free seems to baffle as much as it bewitches.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 13
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Mixed: 4 out of 13
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Negative: 0 out of 13
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Sep 8, 2019
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Sep 8, 2019
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Sep 7, 2019Instantly I fell in love with "Loves Missing" - a great well crafted work with Iggy`s superb voice and groovy chilled style again.