IGGY AND THE STOOGES Raw Power (Columbia)

This is the third and final Stooges album, originally released in 1973 and still heroically available new on vinyl if you know where to look. Famously goaded back into the recording studio by the then-divine David Bowie (having recently done the successful career makeover thing with Lou Reed), who then shrouded the entirety of the album with a treble-heavy cocaine buzz during the mixing stage, "Raw Power" may not contain any of The Stooges' most memorable proto-punk anthems like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "No Fun", and neither does it go as cataclysmically off on one in the manner of the more unhinged free-jazz sections of "Fun House", but perhaps ranks as the easiest route into the violent, scuffling genius of this band and their, er, charismatic frontman. (Mick Rock's cover shot of Iggy at the microphone stand in the definitive cool-as pose, wearing what look like foil trousers, has to be some kind of classic as well). Songs like "Search And Destroy" and "Gimme Danger" haven't dated at all - they're as fetid as the day they were recorded - and make even the roughest excursions of Iggy's later solo work look like Fleetwood Mac at their most radio friendly by comparison. Now, if only some benevolent record company would reissue those first two albums...