Naughty Little Doggie

The '90s grunge era brought rough-and-tumble productions back into style, and no one benefitted from the enforced rawness more than Iggy Pop. Brick by Brick had been compositionally strong, and American Caesar matched it with hard-edged production. Naughty Little Doggie tightened up Caesar's sprawl and spit it out in 10 glorious ripostes. "I Wanna Live" lets us know that Iggy's "cooler than MTV," something we knew all along, but it's still plenty of fun to hear him taunting and teasing with a backup band (The F***ups) that's ready to smash things to bits. "Pussy Walk" is the kind of tune only Iggy could get away with and not be considered too dirty of an old man. "Innocent World" is among the finest tunes Iggy has cut since his days with The Stooges, with a pitch-challenged vocal that's so ragged but right. "Look Away" ends things with a subdued salute to Johnny Thunders, who until his end was one of Iggy's few peers who could perform at his highest levels of decadence.