The debut by the Stooges is underwhelming. In the rush to capture the new Detroit sound heralded by the MC5 with 1968's Kick Out the Jams, Elektra signed the Stooges as well. Unlike their colleagues, the Stooges hadn't peaked yet, so their first album still clings tightly to their influences, such as the Bo Diddley beat of "1969". The band also quickly fell under the spell of ex-Velvet John Cale (and for entirely non-musical reasons, Nico), resulting in the jarring "We Will Fall" plunked in the middle of it all. Iggy Pop is fairly restrained; I know you're not supposed to judge an album by the cover, but it illustrates that restraint fairly well compared to the two albums to come.
Just be sure I wasn't being unduly unfair to this album, I listened to Fun House for the afternoon drive and it's clear something good happened musically between these albums. Whereas I found the debut album intriguing, but ultimately disappointing, all the stories about its recording kept me away from Fun House for too long with no good reason. It's pretty amazing how strong the first half of that album is since the band was downright coming off the rails at that point, aptly illustrated in the second half.
Even though I don't regard myself as a fan of this album, it's worthwhile to listen to it, study it, and see how it pointed the way to things to come.
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