Inspired by Albumism, I’m doing my own version of Flying Solo with individual tracks. Band breakups and hiatuses are never fun, but these solo jams were defining moments in my life’s soundtrack.

Listening to “Lust for Life” several decades after it was initially released is quite a trip. It’s like getting sucked into a five minute microcosm of music where production and performance are vying for the spotlight. More noteworthy, the song seems like the single torch bearer of musical influence for The Strokes.

What made “Lust for Life” so exceptional was that it leaned just as hard into its unique garage sound distortions as it did into its composition and performance. “Lust for Life” simply sounded like no other song out there. But there’s no mistaking that The Strokes borrowed several cues from it to create their own brand of post-punk that later became part of the rich soundscape of the early 2000’s.

“Climb up the H of the Hollywood sign, yeah. In these stolen moments the world is mine.”