The Strokes - Is This It
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Music CD Cover
Artist: The StrokesBrand: STROKES
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2001-10-09
Music Label: RCA
Product features:
- STROKES THE IS THIS IT
- Is This It
- The Modern Age
- Soma
- Barely Legal
- Someday
- Alone, Together
- Last Nite
- Hard To Explain
- When It Started
- Trying Your Luck
- Take It Or Leave It
Free Music Notes for Is This It
Free Music Review: Good, Old-Fashioned Rock & Roll
Hit: 5 Stars
Back in 2001 when this came out, I basically missed this. I didn't catch much of the hype, don't really remember hearing the songs, didn't see any videos. You may ask "Were you in the civilized world at all?" Back then I was still discovering music and was a rabid Beatles fan, I couldn't be concerned with a modern band when it seemed like the entire musical landscape in my recent memory was rather... uh, bad. I hadn't got into The Strokes until early this year when I saw the video for "Juicebox" a few times and said "I might buy that CD." I'd had good results from an impulse buy of the Foo Fighters, so I was feeling optimistic. So I got First Impressions Of Earth and worked my way back.
So I can say that whatever I think of this album is not influenced by any hype or fond, nostalgic memories of the time it came out. Track by track:
"Is This It" - Most people start off albums with jolts of energy (or they start with a quiet, throw-away track and then jump into track 2 at an insane markup in volume to get people to jump, I guess), but not The Strokes. "Is This It" is a lethargic, droning kind of song, but the good kind. A good drum sound and interesting bass part keep your attention, as well as Julian's tired vocals. The energy of this song is not in high speed or volume. It all blends together to make an oddly catchy, unexpected start for the album.
"The Modern Age" - Building up the energy some, we have a moderate paced song, very guitar driven. Julian's overdriven vocals are irresistable and he gives a very good performance here over another catchy melody. Nick and Albert's guitars blend together two unique parts to very good effect, but the volume of the drums and, moreso, the bass make them almost negligable to the song.
"Soma" - A good song, stepping up the pace just a little once again. This probably isn't one of the best songs on the album, but it doesn't hurt anyone being here and flows quite nicely in the album context anyway. It changes feel from bright to dark effortlessly, giving it some good dynamics. Nick's later guitar countermelodies are somewhat hinted at here briefly.
"Barely Legal" - Once again, the next song increases the pace just enough. Irresistably catchy, good guitar, nice beat - this song has everything you could ask for from a single song of this kind of rock. Plus, who doesn't love singing along with Julian when he says what his sister doesn't give? Go to a concert and listen to the audience! Even though he isn't exactly subtle in his expressions ("I just wanna mis-a-behave/I just wanna be your slave"), when he sings it it has so much more style than Chad Kroeger saying "I like the pants beneath your knees".
"Someday" - Nostalgia for the young people who only have high school to be nostalgic of. A driving beat and quick rhythm propels the song beneath Julian's (once again) catchy chorus, expressing wanting to break up as gracefully as pop/rock can allow: "You say you wanna stay by my side/Darling, your head's not right/Alone we stand, together we fall apart"
"Alone, Together" - One of the more subdued and melancholy tracks of the album, despite its simple, but effective guitar riff and changing dynamics from relatively tame to relatively bombastic. One of the few songs that I couldn't see working to such great effect as a single, but this is the kind of album track you buy an album for.
"Last Nite" - The song that it seems turned everyone onto The Strokes (I think I vaguely recall hearing it back when it came out. Earwax buildup, I suppose), and it's understandable why ears perked. This song has everything you could want to break into the public: a strong rhythm, an exceptional vocal, a catchy melody and instrumentation, and a healthy dose of rcokin'.
"Hard To Explain" - Quite possibly the best song on the album, as others have said. From the very beginning drum sounds to the very end, this song oozes goodness. The riff that the verses are built around is very easily memorable and gives Julian yet another opportunity to show off his vocal cords, and, for probably the second time on the album, the bass does something truly interesting! The lyrics are somewhat vague, but still gives you an impression of what's going on and they seem to express a feeling all us teens-young adults have at some point and probably many.
"When It Started" - Hmm, this is odd. This song feels rather out of place after "Hard To Explain" and that makes plenty of sense since this is the one that was switched in in the place of "New York City Cops". It was intended as a B-side and I can see why. It's not that it's so bad, but it doesn't seem to fit. With its odd, fast rhythm it would have fit better on the first half of the album, but that already flowed to well to be broken up. And who knows what he's singing about or where the title came from?
"Trying Your Luck" - Another of those few kind of down songs that they do so well. One of my favorite tracks on the album. Another song with an odd and changing rhythm, and I keep pointing these out because many bands don't seem to have a concept of the effectiveness. They don't do it so sloppily (and godawful) as System Of A Down, this is more akin to the kind of changes The Beatles would sometimes employ. In fact, I would even say this could have been a Beatles song, like one of their early dark-toned ones such as "I'll Be Back". Did I just compare The Strokes' quality to The Beatles?
"Take It Or Leave It" - A good end to the album, and a very good performance on all fronts. Another catchy tune, but not quite like the other ones. This one is more raw. Need I note the dynamics of this one too?
One that should also be noted:
"New York City Cops" - There's a reason why everyone says to seek this song out if you buy the American version and don't have it. It is just that good and works much better than "When It Started" after "Hard To Explain", in large part because this is a song that's good enough to follow that tough act. Very punk inspired and Julian rises to the occasion on vocals once again, and everyone actually turns in a great performance. If you ain't got it, get it!
If you're looking to buy this album, what I would do is go for a foreign version that has the original album art and the bonus DVD with videos. I got mine used on Amazon for slightly less than I could have got the American version with DVD! I do like the American cover art and think it's really cool, but the back photo is better on the import (and the front ain't bad either) and the whole package looks better together. The front and back are black and white and so are the inside photos, but the American version has significantly more colorful covers. The DVD is also worth having if you ever want to watch the videos. The "Last Nite" video is actually a live performance on a sound stage and is thus a slightly different version than is on the album. Also the MTV 2 Dollar Bill outtakes are nice to have and make the DVD worthwhile for virtually no extra cost usually.
On a technical note, this is probably the album that is best mastered, not much evidence of the loudness war's effects here, but it still sounds lo-fi anyway because of how it was recorded. The drums don't sound very great generally and aren't very big. They needed to at least be brought up farther in the mix, and everything could have done with a tad bit of reverb probably. It all sounds very direct-injected, which is often just a little too bare for electric guitars. But I'm sure they intended it to sound this way, so who am I to say how it should be.
And so with just enough dirtiness and a healthy amount of swearing and some much-needed substance in songwriting, The Strokes have made an album that I hope will be remembered in the future. I've never listened a lot to many of the bands they are often said to be influneced by/ripped off, so I can't comment on that. They do sound kind of like Television on this album, but that's not really difficult since Television doesn't have a really difficult and produced sound from what little I've heard. In any case, I think this is a very good album, and definitely a great place to start a career (that is, if you can keep the quality up after the first two or three albums), and it seems chances are just about anyone who likes good rock music will. My dad's 56 and he digs The Strokes!
Is This It Poster
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