Continuing their streak of reissuing questionable albums with sonic clarity and at 45RPM speed, then turning them into double-disc $60 efforts, comes MoFi’s take on The Stooges.

Look, if ever a band did not need sonic clarity as to what they were doing, it’s this Detroit quartet. The whole point of the band was to make clanging, rudimentary, bored-as-fuck noise that kids could dance or punch to. They didn’t really write songs or care about what sort of instruments they were playing or try to write commercial hit singles. The whole ethos was industrial scuzz, copying the feel and operations of a Motown auto plant in music mixed with the ennui of being a weird teenager in the Midwest.

So yes, the MoFi effort brings out the sonic details—such as they are—of the band’s 1969 debut, but it never really needed to. Part of the appeal is sinking into the muck with these guys when you put on a Stooges album. Moreover, it’s not like there’s a lot to recommend on this album anyway.

Now, I hear the cries of protest, so let me explain. Yes, I realize these guys are from a city about 10 minutes from where I live. Yes, the Stooges more or less invented punk and grunge, let alone influence the style and ethos, a long time before they became actual movements. And yes, “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “Not Right,” “Real Cool Time,” “Little Doll” and “1969” are great proto-punk tracks. About half the album is worth recommending.

But the other half… yikes. With a dearth of material, the band had to improvise, and these were young guys with no musical training (except Iggy). So 14 minutes of the disc—over 1/3 of it—is given to two endless dirges, “We Will Fall” and “Ann.”  They are so bad that they stop the energy cold and leave you scrambling for the skip button. “No Fun” also wears out its welcome after a few minutes.

So five songs, totaling about 15 minutes of music, are what gives this album its classic status, and that hardly seems like shelling out $60 for, especially when the scuzzy lo-fi nature of the music is part of the point. The Stooges were about rebelling against the hippies anyway, playing loud and loose at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, and I don’t think at the time they would have approved of a reissue like this. Do as you will, but I think MoFi has other options that justify the sonic effort and price tag involved in their releases.

Rating: C

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