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Lust for Life

by Iggy Pop

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The relentless, driving drums and thunderous bass of the opening title track are the magic components that make it the best song Iggy Pop ever recorded without the Stooges. They're also why this is Iggy's best solo album--which also includes the ominously upbeat "The Passenger," with its hilariously ennui-filled, sing-along chorus ("La la la la la la la la la..."). As with Pop's first solo album, The Idiot, David Bowie has his hands all over the proceedings (if not somewhere else as well) as the producer, songwriter, and general overseer of Iggy the popstar. The record reached 28 on the U.K. charts. Of course, as the jagged, dark guitars on "Sixteen" and "Neighborhood Threat" make clear, Iggy's version of pop music is anything but conventional, and anything but bland. "Some Weird Sin" ("That's what I want...") could have been Iggy's theme song in 1977, heavy with innuendo and a dangerous joie de vivre. --Percy Keegan