Musically, “Lust For Life” is deceptively catchy and upbeat for a song about a life ravaged by drug addiction. This has led to the song being used as the laughably incongruous soundtrack of advertisements for clients like Royal Carribean Cruises and Metrobank.

The song was co-written in 1977 by Iggy Pop and David Bowie, with Bowie providing the music (written on a ukulele), and Pop the lyrics.

Bowie and Pop performing together circa 1977

The song is immediately recognizable by its opening drumbeat (played by Hunt Sales), which has since been imitated in numerous songs, including “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet and “Selfish Jean” by Travis. However, Sales' beat was itself derived from “You Can’t Hurry Love”, released in July 1966 by The Supremes,[1] and “I’m Ready For Love”, released in October 1966 by Martha and the Vandellas.

The title Lust for Life was first used for Irving Stone’s 1934 biographical novel about Vincent Van Gogh. It has also been used to name songs and albums by Lana Del Rey, Childish Gambino, Girls and Heavenly.

The 1977 song gained a new audience when it was used on the soundtrack of the 1996 film, Trainspotting. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it #147 of their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

“Take Me Out” is a song by Scottish indie rock band Franz Ferdinand. It was released as the second single from their eponymous debut studio album in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2004 and in the United States on 9 February, both through Domino Records.

Sire Records chief Seymour Stein called it “the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ of the Eighties”, while co-writer Johnny Marr described it as “possibly our most enduring record. It’s most people’s favourite, I think.” Despite its prominent place in The Smiths' repertoire, however, it is not generally considered to be representative of the band’s style.

Although a club favourite, “How Soon Is Now?” did not chart as well as writers Morrissey and Marr had expected. Most commentators put this down to the fact that the song had been out on vinyl in a number of forms before being released as a single in its own right. The original track runs for nearly seven minutes; however, the 7" single edit cut the length down to under four minutes. The complete version is generally used on compilations. The song has been widely praised for the artistry of its lyrics.

The heavily-reverbed riff that propels the song is a wonderfully repurposed version of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love.”

“Hard to Explain” is the first single from New York garage rock band The Strokes (their only previously released material was The Modern Age EP). It was released first in the UK and was later released in the U.S. with different album artwork. (The UK version has a photo of two chairs, one red and one black, facing the camera. The chairs appear to be in a diner or restaurant of some sort.)

The cover art is based on Shiro Kuramata’s iconic Glass Chair piece, in which the design itself was based on the 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” The art piece is currently on display at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY.

Because this single is the first from their debut LP Is This It, “Hard to Explain” made the anticipation for the album proper very high, and when Is This It did come out it was widely hailed as one of the best of the year. The B-side of this single, “New York City Cops” was omitted from the U.S. version of the album in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center (the chorus to the song contains the lines “New York City cops/They ain’t too smart”).

Taken from the acclaimed Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem’s second single is a restless raver that has the inadvertent ring of a Killers track recorded while the band holidayed in Ibiza. You would have to feel for the keyboard player too – the song is built upon a metronomic one note line played at an incessant 140 bpm for the duration, which at four minutes would require an impressive level of stamina. The songs displays a level of repetition that Krautrock pioneers Can and Neu! would be proud of.

Murphy treats us to his usual observational wit with lyrics such as “it comes apart the way it does in bad films”. The song acts as a comment on friendship’s highs and lows, to a soundtrack that is New Order doing Kraut-funk by way of the New York club scene. Monotonous but fun.

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