Released on 25 June 1990 "Brick By Brick" was the 9th., studio album by US singer Iggy pop. After attracting mixed reviews for much of his 1980s output, Pop hired producer Don Was, who was a longtime fan of Pop's band the Stooges, as producer and opted for a hard rock sound. Many songs on the album incorporate a lyrical theme of the United States facing dangers of cultural decay and implosion. Slash and Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses were featured on the album as songwriters and performers. The album spawned four singles "Livin' On The Edge Of The Night", "Home", "Candy", & "Butt Town".
The cover was drawn by American cartoonist Charles Burns. The album's personnel includes studio musicians Waddy Wachtel and Kenny Aronoff, and is the first studio album that features Pop contributing guitar. He plays a majority of the guitar parts along with Wachtel and Slash.
Don Was brought in extra muscle. Session superstar Waddy Wachtel handles much of the guitar on "Brick by Brick." Slash and Duff, at their peaks, also join, with Slashing co-writing one of the tracks, "My Baby Wants to Rock & Roll." But the most notable guest appearance on the record is unquestionably Kate Pierson, of the B-52s, whose voice almost single-handedly propelled the single, "Candy," towards unlikely mainstream radio success. John Hiatt also contributes a song and some backing vocals to the album with "Something Wild." And though the other names mentioned are more recognizable, it is the sound that Hiatt perfected a wiser and more cynical brand of Roots Rock that was not quite Country and not quite Alternative and this is what most defines "Brick by Brick." It’s true -- aside from the singles and a couple updates on the Stooges' flavor of Metal.
Brick by Brick is all about the work we do little by little, day in and out to build a life, a home and a love for ourselves. It is equally about the ways in which our society and culture have obscured the value of work and the actual grit required to create human equity and value. Iggy’s politics are his own home blend. He can sound decidedly proletariat. He can sound like a prescient civil right crusader. And he can sound like a staunch, anti-elite, anti-celebrity. And, often, he can sound like them all at once.
On "Brick by Brick," when the music stays in the realm of Roots Rock acoustic guitars, syncopated to the beat and Iggy doesn’t have to race to catch up to the riffs, his politics and songs fare best. When he, Slash and Duff gesture towards The Stooges, or Metal, the songs can feel a little showy and the lyrics a little “on the nose.” On the album’s opener, "Home," Iggy struggles to find his footing. Not quite Punk and not quite Roots, is almost a rockabilly track about how much we take the idea and physical shelter of Home for granted. It’s a profound idea underserved by a rickety Garage Rock band.
Iggy works through his argument on "Main Street Eyes," "I Won’t Crap Out" and "The Undefeated," which, are each, in the own ways, among the most straight ahead and melodic tracks on the record. The former posits that the singer’s ambitions are only towards Main Street. He wants a decent life. He wants to work for it. That’s all. The notion of incremental, hard work frames "I Won’t Crap Out," wherein Iggy promises his love that they can have a great, beautiful life together, so long as he doesn’t crap out. Like an old car, he will work hard and look good. There will be bumps. Some failures. But if they tend to the problems and work at things, it will be a great drive. The latter of this trip is the most sardonic and the biggest reach. A big acoustic Rock number with a singalong chorus, "The Undefeated" takes aim at the stupidity of privilege and the insidiousness of hegemony.
It is clear that Iggy and Don Was could be successful and prodigious together. But the partnership did not, by any means, produce fourteen great songs for “Brick by Brick.” “Butt Town” and “Neon Forest” both cop Metal riffs to conjure the Stooges in songs about the emptiness of glamor and celebrity. Both songs are heavy and professional, but only serve to confirm that if the Stooges tried to be even ten percent more clever, they would have failed. These songs break at the seams between sonic weight and bluntness and conceptual deftness. The Slash collaboration, for all of its promise, ends up simply as five minutes of impressive guitar wanking under a par baked vocal idea from Iggy. It never really congeals into a song. It simply shows off a great guitarist and a singer that he admires who, in turn, appreciates that the guitarist donned his cap.
Across the record, there are genuine love songs of various sorts. The great outlier among these love songs is, of course, "Candy," which is not about a present love or working relationship but, rather, of a lost love a reminiscence. The track would become a Modern Rock hit, a mainstream Pop hit and in constant rotation on MTV. The song, ostensibly two bass chords and a chorus, is a revelation due to the interplay of the two singers voices Iggy’s deep and sad, Kate Pierson’s soaring and vulnerable. When they harmonize, it’s both surprisingly pretty and affecting.
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