Pitchfork

A couple years ago, I bought Raw Power on CD. I'd heard all the hype about what a great record this was, but you could have fooled me. Everything was too muddy and buried in echoes. I dig lo-fi music, but this shit just didn't do it for me. I barely touched the CD after a few spins.

Enter Iggy's remix of Raw Power. Within 24 hours of getting this disc, I listened to it more times than the disc I got two years ago. Now I get it. This album is a wet dream stapled to an aluminum disc, a treasure trove of pure, unadulterated rock and roll with the amps cranked to 11 and testosterone in overdrive. Instead of David Bowie's murky mix (which Stooges purists have told me was blasphemed even more on the original CD version), we get a cleaner, brighter version that also has to be one of the loudest mixes I've heard in some time.

The music? Man, it rules! Not a single disappointing song on the whole album. Now I understand why Axl Rose wanted to be Iggy Pop so badly: because being Axl Rose really isn't all that cool. Axl copped his whole act from "Gimme Danger", one of the two "ballads" on Raw Power. Add to that balls-out rockers like the classic "Search and Destroy", "Shake Appeal", and "Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell" and you've got a rock 'n' roll album that's every bit as essential as the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed and the Beatles' Revolver. Hands down the reissue of the year, and if not, it's the only one I know of executive produced by Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson.