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Skull Ring doesn't always capture Iggy at his best as a lyricist, but here what he says isn't half as important as how he says it, and he hasn't sounded this right -- and had music this potent backing him up -- in a decade.
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Alternative PressHazardous and hostile. [Dec 2003, p.152]
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BlenderPop has made more nuanced albums than this in recent years, but Skull Ring is about reclaiming the franchise as unselfconsciously as is possible. [Oct 2003, p.125]
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Finally, it seems the venerable Iggy has realised that his own brand of nasty, brutish, reductive rock'n'roll is superior to practically any nasty, brutish, reductive rock'n'roll that has tried to supersede it.
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Skull Ring delivers some truly pumping generation-bridging rock moments.
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This reviewer wishes he could tell you that Skull Ring is as good as his best past highlights--but it just ain't.
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MagnetPop uses the strengths and weaknesses of his many guests to differing--and sometimes distracting--effect. [#61, p.88]
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MojoThe four tracks on which they collaborate are timely reminders of The Stooges' initial impact and their ongoing influence. [Oct 2003, p.106]
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Overproduced, under-written, swaggering nonsense.
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'Skull Ring' is Iggy's strongest and most consistent album since 1993's 'American Caesar'.
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Skull Ring is not merely a testament to Iggy's staying power as an artist, but it is also an amazing feat in that it melds the past, present and future of punk/pop onto a single CD.
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Q MagazineNo one could have expected the four Stooges reunion tunes to sound so young and furious. [Nov 2003, p.120]
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Unfortunately, Pop puts the head-banging on autopilot with his longtime touring band, the Trolls, to fill out this overlong seventeen-track album.
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That's the problem with Skull Ring: It's the work of an artist who should be looking within himself to create a modern-may masterpiece, rather than trying to catch a spark from either his chart-topping successors or the band he once fronted so triumphantly. Both acts, in their way, give a whiff of desperation.
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SpinFlails along the same path as 2001's casually brutal return to formlessness, Beat Em Up. [Dec 2003, p.123]
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In spite of its apparent split personality, Skull Ring is a righteously bombastic affair, and easily the best Iggy record since Brick by Brick.
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While the results aren't classic, they're at least presented in a classic style.
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The real problem, however, is that the Stooges' tracks cast the rest of the album in an unflattering light.
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UncutSure, it flags here and there, but Skull Ring is Iggy's most sustained assault since the Instinct/Brick By Brick double whammy. [Nov 2003, p.118]
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Under The RadarThe only downers here are the lyrical blunders.... However, the music more than makes up for it. [#5, p.100]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 6
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Mixed: 0 out of 6
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Negative: 1 out of 6
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kellyjealousJul 25, 2004
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AlfDec 12, 2003I wanna hear the cannon
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JNOct 21, 2003