‘I think that for a lot of those that were at the right age, The Strokes‘ debut was such a culturally defining moment that it became impossible for the band to ever do anything that would match the sentimentality some have for Is This It.‘
-Alex Eubanks
Release date: July 30, 2001 | RCA / Rough Trade | Facebook | Instagram | Website
Indie rock has seen its fair share of defining bands and eras; in the ’00s, few (if any) could compare to the hype – and subsequent onslaught of imitators and detractors alike – centered around The Strokes, whose garage rock/post-punk-fueled brand of flippant nonchalance has made them an exciting cultural phenomenon and just a bloody good rock’n’roll band. The look, the sound, the charismatic frontman: these NYC boys seemingly had it all, on their debut record no less.
Broc Nelson
I’m going to take the leap and go full millennial (derogatory) while ranting like a boomer about one of his favorite rock albums of all time. They don’t make music like this these days. The Strokes, I mean, but also, I cannot think of any straightforward rock album since Is This It that has been as influential to me or indie rock since. The closest one is Room On Fire, The Strokes‘ second album. So, I’m going to crack a beer, lean back, and reflect on the glory days of indie rock.
I caught wind of Is This It from a magazine or something, but I found the first singles online and would occasionally catch the music video for “Last Night” on TV. I was sold on their sound immediately. Reviewers in 2001 compared them to The Velvet Underground and Television. At the time I wasn’t familiar with the latter, but The Velvet Underground was already one of my favorite bands. That comparison is a stretch since VU were far more experimental, and I would later learn that Television, while better musicians, were a closer comparison. Julian Casablancas does channel Lou Reed occasionally, and the well-paced instrumentation is reminiscent of Television, and that they are all distinctly New York City bands makes sense to a degree.
So, anticipating what the entire album could sound like, I went to Napster and downloaded the whole thing (as was the style of the time), adding the track “New York City Cops” that was removed from the US release out of sensitivity to 9/11 to the end of the album. So, the CD that I listened to the most had tracks of varying quality and a bonus track. Now, hearing these songs on streaming and through FLAC files actually takes away from the specific way I remember hearing this album, but the songs still fucking rule even with the added clarity. I always knew that I had a few muddled tracks, but the production of Is This It is already lo-fi and retro-feeling.
The combination of their purposefully rough production and classic New York City pastiche and swagger was irresistible, channeling a punk energy through garage rock further embodied by their fashion sense. This album was sensational, sure, not to the level of The Beatles or Nirvana, but The Strokes lead what came to be termed ‘the garage rock revival”. After Is This It, all eyes were on New York giving rise to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, TV On The Radio, Liars, and others from NYC and beyond. The other, and likely bigger, success story from that era was from Detroit in The White Stripes, who, along with The Strokes, created a culture eager to move beyond mainstream rock radio into the more interesting sounds of the inaugural wave of indie rock powerhouses.
All of that, in turn, lead to greater focus on smaller bands which coincided beautifully with the direction the internet was going. Sure, there were pirates like myself, but between MySpace, YouTube, Bandcamp, and many other ways to access music, the garage rock revival landed at a critical time. There was enough access for smaller bands to gain attention while simultaneously enough faith in the music press and MTV to amplify many of these acts into a codified ‘movement’ that, to me, still stands as the last great rock revival, with apologies to the post-punk revival scene. Indie rock has persisted in music critics’ and fans’ attentions ever since. To be fair, the rise of indie in the 1980s would have kept it at attention, but this revival amplified rock music to its greatest merger between creativity and popularity since grunge and has influenced countless bands since.
Is This It starts with the title track which slowly bobs its way between traffic cones of balladry and the sweet pop of “Sunday Morning” by The Velvet Underground, the whole band interlocking a hypnotic groove that carries Julian Casablancas world-weary voice. The perfection of the timing on this track, the way that each instrument can clearly be heard in a complex dance of melody and rhythm is still one of my favorite musical moments from the band. “The Modern Age” ramps things up sounding like if The Stooges wanted to pay homage to Dean Martin. The wilder vocal performance shows The Strokes‘ versatility within their distinct sound.
“Soma” once again shows their talent for interlocking guitar melodies over a motorik beat that drives into a film noir vibe chorus. “Barely Legal” is another favorite (really a no skip record), channeling a Springsteen-esque Americana melody driving a surf-rock swagger detailing the story of a lost soul in and out of love that feels like a resolution for at least half of the break ups in my life. “Someday” follows with an instant nostalgia filtering vintage rock rhythms and melodies through New York garage punk while Casablancas gives one of his most iconic vocal performances. Easily one of their biggest hits, this song will always get my toe tappin’ and probably a sing along.
“Last Night” repeats “Someday”’s trick of upcycling tropes from rock and R&B recalling both Tom Petty’s American Girl and The Supremes‘ “You Can’t Hurry Love” while delivering a rock single that rivals The Rolling Stones. Call it derivative, but the song works and is guaranteed to end up on the “Songs To Make White People Dance” playlist update. “Take It Or Leave It”, the closing track on the US version repeats its main riff to nearly the point of being obnoxious but reigns it in to deliver a grimy chorus in contrast. Throw the punked-up rager of “New York City Cops” on to close the thing, and you have one of my favorite albums of all time.
I’ve heard this album more times than I can count. It is comfort music and one of the only albums my brothers and I not only agree on and but sing along to the whole way through. There are many albums and bands from this era that remain incredibly important to me, but this one started it all for myself and many others. I will celebrate this moment in music like a badge of honor, the way boomers feel about AC/DC or Led Zeppelin. Should it be challenged in the future, I will clap back with the full-chested pride of someone who was fully invested in an era of music. This was peak millennial music, and frankly, I’ve yet to hear a period of rock to challenge it since and have yet to hear an album that can compete with Is This It.
Alex Eubanks
I’ll do my best to explain this; Is This It is both underrated and overrated and it’s in large part due to a pretty massive generational split between Gen-Z and Millennials.
I think that for a lot of those that were at the right age, The Strokes‘ debut was such a culturally defining moment that it became impossible for the band to ever do anything that would match the sentimentality some have for Is This It. Combine this with the push back and second guessing that comes for most albums that hit this level of popularity and influence, and at times it feels more like hearing people reminisce about the ‘good ol’ days’ than talking about an album.
My generation has zero sentimentality for this era, and as a result has a much greater fondness for The Strokes‘ body of work as a whole (The New Abnormal was a huge turning point for things swinging the other direction). Maybe a little too much. I agree with most of it, Room on Fire is excellent; it’s a borderline 10/10, they only have one bad album (First Impressions of Earth), Julian Casablancas’ solo stuff is solid, but in the evening out of the criticism, Is This It started getting bumped down a bit too much. It’s not a surprise the generation shift has resulted in a bit less reverence for Is This It as times gone on, but I don’t count myself among that faction.
Despite some differences in broader Strokes opinions, I do completely get how so many made Is This It their whole personality, it’s an absolutely perfect album. There’s so many culture defining musical moments that it’s impossible not to be captivated by the endless highpoints – the energy is just undeniable.
It’s extraordinarily rare for an album to be this high quality and this fun at the same time. “Someday” is so light and energetic-sounding, it just completely takes over your body the second the chords wash over you. The sugary energy is a perfect complement for Julian’s melancholy delivered throughout the track – one of the highpoints of the album. Love the instrumental and the mixing on “Soma”. Is This It is perfectly crafted throughout, and producer Gordon Raphael really deserves a lot of credit for helping perfect the material. You can almost hear the exact second Arctic Monkeys come into existence on “Alone, Together”. The confident, horny eagerness of the track clearly created the future structure for some of the Brits’ early work.
The best track of the album is clearly “Hard to Explain”. It’s always a bit risky for a band to structure a track completely around the delivery of the chorus, but if you’ve got one of the best choruses of all time you might as well call your shot. For how little detail is in the track, it’s astonishing how vivid a picture the song creates for you. You can perfectly imagine and probably relate to meeting someone, swinging and missing, and having to move on with your night. Combine it with the incredible instrumental, and excellent delivery from Julian and it’s a legitimately perfect track.
There aren’t a lot of lead singers that get off to as hot a start to their career as Julian does. Every track is just absolutely captivating, and you can easily see how he’s stabilized as one of the few frontman with staying power in modern rock. The instrumentation pulls you into “Last Nite” immediately, it’s so addictive, and Julian does an excellent job exuding that energy of someone in their early 20s and a bit too full of themselves but a bit too aware of it.
I love the casual, almost lazy singing on the title track. It’s one of those tracks you underrate a bit on a first listen when you’ve been completely blown away by some of the bigger tracks, but Julian’s writing really rewards relistening on this one. “Barely Legal” is a nearly impossible track to pull off, but Julian is able to stick the landing perfectly. He manages to almost completely avoid coming off like a complete creep (Julian on “Barely Legal” and Rivers Cuomo on “Across the Sea” create the musical version of the flirting/harassment meme) and gets some shots off on his piece of shit dad. Win-Win. Vocally, Julian’s delivery on “The Modern Age” is magnificent, if “Hard to Explain” wasn’t so goddamn perfect it’d be my favorite of the album. The hook is pure ecstasy.
Is This It probably isn’t the most influential album ever covered as an ASIR, but it’s absolutely on the shortlist. Almost every aspect of the early-mid 2000s vibe shift back towards rock can be credited to The Strokes getting audiences back onboard for that type of music again. By their own admission, The Killers turned one track on the level of “Someday”, “Hard to Explain”, and “Last Nite” into an extremely commercially successful career, and they certainly aren’t the only ones. Almost every popular rock band of the last 15-20 years can trace at least some of their success to the aftershock of Is This It.
Despite my view that it’s simultaneously overrated and underrated, it’s still my favorite album by The Strokes, and one of my favorite rock albums from the 2000’s. As much as I love Room on Fire, The New Abnormal, and Angles (to a lesser extent), Is This It is one of those albums that just does not come around very often. I wonder if the next generation of music will find the proper balance of respect to have for The Strokes‘ career?
