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This isn't the Stooges in their prime, but it's considerably better than most everything else rock coming out these days. James guitar playing is badass. The weakest link, as I've come to expect, is Iggy himself. Seems as if a fair amount of time went into the actual music. I can't say the same for the lyrics. It is better than The Weirdness. Considerably so. But then again, it's not really the same band either. Something important most forget about the Stooges is that those first two records, and Raw Power were NOT the same, nor intended to be the same, bands. James Williamson added an element that was very different than those first two records as him and Ronnie are two very different types of players. Ron played little to no role in the writing that went into Raw Power. They are fun to compare and contrast....
Ron, way more poetic, loose. That trashy blues and free jazz and Ravi Shankar no doubt came out in his playing in various ways.
James - More technically efficient (most guitar players, including myself, will tell ya his riffs are much more difficult to play. I honestly can't play many of them). His influences weren't as obvious, which is funny cause the argument could probably be made that his playing is/was more generic than Ron's.
It's not the best record ever, but it's a lot of fun. I recommend giving it a listen. I was honestly surprised at how good it was compared to what I thought it would be.
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Team Thurston!
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