The Strokes - Is This It?

Wed 23rd Mar, 2005 in Music Reviews

It’s not unusual for the English music press to go absolutely fucking nuts over a band, and it’s not unusual for that band to turn out to be not so great. In fact, this occurs so often that the rest of the world now approaches “Next Big Thing!” bands with a certain amount of trepidation. However, in late 2000 and early 2001, the English music press started salivating over The Strokes, a New York five piece whose apparently strong live shows and new rock posing were giving them street credibility even before any recorded music came out. By the time the album came out, it could not possibly live up to the hype, however, when the album “Is This It?” hit stores, it soon became clear that the music press might actually have got it right; this album was a classic.

The eponymous album opener introduces the listener to lead singer Julian Casablancas’ trademark disinterested vocals, and lyrics about drinking and staying up late (how rock!) However its second track The Modern Age which really sets things alight. Driving guitars and solid drum thrashing make an infectious dance rhythm, and it becomes clear that guitars are what drives the Strokes. It also  becomes clear that Casablancas has no intention of competing with the guitars for attention, nor could he if he wanted to. Soma is next, followed by Barely Legal, before Someday once again allows the guitars to pack their punch. Alone Together glides by before album highlight Last Night struts out on to the stage. Hard To Explain sounds like The Strokes attempt at a ballad, but with the guitars still set at high gear. NYC Cops is the last of the album’s singles, and then the subdued Trying Your Luck and the raucous Take It Or Leave It round out an excellent album of guitar driven songs.

This is definitely an album where the singles are easily identifiable and stand out from the songs around them, but, unlike a lot of other albums, the other songs are also good, just different from the big singles. The Strokes sound like they listened to a lot of stoner rock albums from the ‘70’s, but only took what they needed and then put it through the super production style of the late ‘90’s/early ‘00’s, in the process creating a homage instead of a copy. The Strokes brought the straightforward guitar back to the forefront of rock music, demonstrating it was what you could do with guitars while playing them, rather than what you could do through the effects of post production, that really made a good band, and they cemented this with excellent live performances.

Make no mistake; the Strokes were definitely posers. They glibly flubbed their way through interviews, even leading at one stage to Richard Kingsmill (from JJJ) pre-emptively terminating an interview with them because they were so unresponsive. Even though they could never live up to the hype that had been generated for them, the strength of their album gave the rest of the world some slim glimmer of restored hope in the music press, and provoked a series of guitar driven also-rans, some of which had value of their own. Even though the follow up album was not as successful, The Strokes had preserved their place in rock history, not just for producing a classic album, but for being one of the few bands who came close to living up to their own reputation.