"King of the Dogs" was inspired by New Orleans style jazz, with an arrangement featuring trumpet, trombone and clarinet. "At one point, I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music," says Iggy. "I've started listening to a lot of New Orleans-era, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton type of jazz."

Préliminaires, which will be released in the U.S. on EMI Music's Astralwerks label on June 2, was produced by Hal Cragin and inspired by French author Michel Houellebecq's 2005 novel The Possibility of an Island.