Beat Em Up

Punk pioneer Iggy Pop has survived a life that makes Keith Richards’ look like a choirboy’s, but his downbeat, introspective 1999 offering Avenue B had us fretting that he’d lost his lust for life. Beat Em Up puts any of these worries to rest—Iggy hasn’t sounded this pissed off since he was a protopunk rolling around in broken glass. Kicking melody to the curb, raw, relentless romps like “Mask,” “Jerk,” and “It’s All Shit” hit like a crowbar to the face—nothing subtle or friendly about ’em, but they sure get the point across.