The Strokes: Is This It- 2001
 

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The Strokes Is This It- 2001
RMR Album Rating- 8
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“Well it was only one night, but it was ****ing strange”…

This one line from the song “New York City Cops” completely epitomizes the whole musical aesthetic of The Strokes 2001 debut album Is This It, and the raw sound and attitude of the album made it one of the cornerstone albums that revived the garage and indie rock movement in the early 2000’s.

The songs on Is This It play like a series of short vignettes that chronicle New York City nightlife from the perspective of a group of young, rebellious, New York socialites, who have been effortless and obliviously living this lifestyle their whole lives, and this careless attitude is carefully crafted into every note and lyric on the album; however, the lyrical content is not written to brag about this lifestyle, it is simply describing the events that are clearly ordinary and customary for the band, and this makes sense given the backgrounds of the band members. Most of the band met at the prestigious Dwight School in Manhattan, and Julian Casablancas, the band’s vocalist and frontman, is the son of “business mogul John Casablancas, the founder of Elite Model Management, and Jeanette Christiansen, a former model and Miss Denmark. His paternal grandfather, Fernando Casablancas, was a well-known textile businessman” (Wikipedia).

As mentioned, the sound of the album is very raw. It almost sounds like a live album that was recorded in the studio, and it basically is, as the band used very little studio patchwork when they recorded it. All the guitar work is very distorted, which combined with Julian Casablancas’ vocals really drive the album. The end result is an uncompromisingly raw and unpolished album with a touch of oblivious sleaziness that is infectiously catchy at the same time.

The album contains 11 tracks, and it flies by, as its run time is just over 35-minutes. All the songs have the same feel, but they are also diverse enough that they are completely discernible from each other. For me, all the songs are aces but there are certainly some standouts. “Someday,” “Hard to explain,” and “Last Night” all broke into the top 40 on the US modern rock charts, and they are all great, but my personal favorite two tracks from the album are “Barley Legal” and “New York City Cops,” as I think they are best representation of the New York City nightlife aesthetic that the album is based upon.

“Barely Legal” takes a page from The Rolling Stones sleaze rock play book, and the lyrics of the song are very clear:

“I wanna steal your innocence/ To me my life, it just don’t make any sense/ Those strange manners, I loved ‘em so/ ‘Why won’t you wear your new trench coat?’/ I just want to misbehave/ I just want to be your slave/ Oh, you ain’t never had nothing I wanted, but…/ I want it all”

Although the meaning of the song is clear if it is analyzed, it doesn’t come across as overtly disreputable, and it really just further drives home the theme of the album that is so obliviously laced throughout every song.

“New York City Cops” features very distorted guitar work from Nick Valensi, and Julian Casablancas’ vocals are very raw, yet even with the distortion and rawness, the chorus of the song (“New York City Cops/ New York City Cops/ They ain’t too smart”) is by far the most catchy and infectious of the entire album.

Before I close this out, I want to use this album as an example to illustrate that indie rock has become more of a genre and sound than an indication of who is releasing a band’s records. As mentioned, Is This It was a huge part of the indie rock revival that started in the early 2000’s, and many fans and most major music sources cite The Strokes as an indie rock band; however, Is This It was released on RCA records, and RCA won a bidding war between several major labels to sign the band before the release of the album. An indie band by definition originally meant that the band’s records were released by an independent label, yet RCA is the farthest thing in the world from an independent rock label. All in all, it doesn’t really matter; I just want to make the point that the term “indie rock” now has much more to do with the sound of an album than who is releasing it.

The Stokes' Is This It is a brilliant album, and it produces two major accomplishments— one that was intentional, and one that just came as second nature to the band. First, The Strokes intentionally wanted to create a very raw, live sounding album, and they absolutely accomplish this. Secondly, and more interesting to me, The Strokes unintentionally create a very visual listening experience that is so vivid that the listener can almost visualize himself living out the of the band’s New York City nightlife escapades, and these two elements make the album a complete success.

Post Script
Upon the release of Is This It, the album was compared and often criticized for sounding too derivative of the band Television. They do sound similar, but Television is much more of an art post-punk band than a garage-indie rock band, and I think Television has much more in common with the Talking Heads than they do with The Strokes. The Strokes commented on this by saying that they weren’t familiar with Television, and their primary influence was The Velvet Underground. I can see the slight connection there, but personally (If I were to make a comparison) I would compare Is This It to The Rolling Stones’ post-sleaze rock album Exile On Main Street. Both albums are raw, unpolished, have a touch of sleaziness to them, and they both have this perfect carelessness to them that make them almost carefully perfect.

It's "Is This It" tho

wow, how'd I miss that. Thanks for the correction. I'll Edit.

i've got it but haven't heard it yet

at the time of its release, i never really understood the hype

the singles from it are just ok, i thought

but Angles turned me around to them and i decided to give it a chance

edit - ok, i've heard it

it all sounds kinda familiar somewhat

from your review, i was expecting something more "abrasive" but it's too "sweet" for my ears

it only started clicking with me round the 6th track or so

also, my version supposedly has "When It Started" instead of "New York City Cops", but when the track played, it was still "NYC Cops"

The only album they did that I think is worth a damn. Well, "The Modern Age" EP as well I enjoy.

They never did capture the spirit of that album after that, and to me became worse and worse with each passing moment.

The album was due for release right after the 9/11- 2001 attack on the twin towers, so the track "NYC Cops" was originally pulled from the release due to the chorus of "New York City Cops/ New York City Cops/ They ain't that smart". So, some versions have "When it Started" instead, but the original track listing included "NYC Cops."

yeah I know, but on the version I have, it's listed as "When It Started" but the song that came out was still "NYC Cops"

Sounds like a rarity

This was a great album. Sexy for sex

One of my favourite albums ever, their best in my opinion

This is a great album. I think it's hard to believe people are getting into them starting from Angles. Some of the lyrics in this album are timeless.

Is This It
 

I adore the Strokes. And this album is flawless. I love every single track and know every single word on this album. I'd say if you asked me to play any song from Is This It I could too. And I don't even think its because they're my favourite band, but I think its more to do with the fact that every song just sits with you. This album was (and still is) revolutionary. Every one of the 11 songs (12 if you were to include When it Started) would have done well as a single. The structure to the songs is done to perfection. They didn't just throw a solo in for the sake of it, or anything of that nature. They mastered it with this record. And with a lot of bands on their first record a couple of songs can sound very similar, but with this album no two tracks are of the same style. There the 'chilled' aspect with the track Is This It, then the intensity of Take it or Leave it, the party anthem Last Nite, and so on. When you have someone who is as musically gifted as Julian Casablancas, a guitarist as talented as Nick Valensi, or someone with such a distinct style as Albert Hammond, Jr, you know you're in for a treat. And this album exceeded expectations. The bass lines are catchy and fit perfectly in with the rawness of the guitars. And Moretti's drumming can't be overlooked either. The points where he plays somewhat in sync with Albert's guitar is some of the best drumming I've ever heard. It is the best album of all time IMO.

I agree with a lot of ppl here that this was a fantastic album. The Strokes should feel proud for releasing something as good as this! Im also surprised a lot of fans are just finding out about the strokes because of angles! the one down fall this album has is that since the strokes released such an amazing album none of their other albums have been able to beat the expectations created by the critics because of Is This It, the only other one that was close was Room on Fire.

Julian Casablancas is the ****ing man. Waaaaah I love this album so much.

One of my favorite albums. The Strokes have attempted to make great albums, but they will never make one as good as their debut. Don't get me wrong though, their other albums are good.

"How Youuu Doin' ?" ;)
*such in the manner of joey from the tv show friends, just kidding :).

Definitely a must have.

great album, a classic

Really good album, a modern day classic for sure

"Is This It" is one of the best albums of all time. Each album after became a little less solid, but The Strokes are still great....I wish they'd come out with something new in similar vain to "Is This It"

Their best album. Yes I agree it's their most raw. Others became quite smooth.

that's just not going to happen though

Cool beans of an album!