The Strokes – Is This It Album Review by Anthony Abarca

Is This It by The Strokes came out on July 30, 2001, sparking up what would be the beginning of the influential New York indie scene of the 2000s, bringing genres like garage rock and indie rock to the mainstream and what would cultivate indie music and labels to the top of the charts. The Strokes, being comprised of Julian Casablancas, Albert Hammond Jr, Fabrizio Moretti, Nick Valensi, and Nikolai Fraiture, would form the band in the late '90s after being introduced to each other while attending school in Manhattan, with Hammond Jr meeting Casablancas while studying abroad in Switzerland.

The band would perform in small clubs around the city along with the famous Mercury Lounge. Their first release, The Modern Age EP, released on Rough Trade, would create a bidding war amongst labels having early demo versions of songs that would later appear on their album like “The Modern Age” and “Last Nite” in a rawer form.

Influences like the Velvet Underground and The Doors can be traced along the record, calling back to the roots of proto-punk and garage rock of the late '60s. Singing to RCA, Is This It would be released to critical acclaim, being produced by Gil Morton who famously worked alongside bands like the Pixies, Foo Fighters, and Echo and the Bunnymen.

Throughout the record, the band can be heard with a gritty and distorted sound to their playing with songs performed in one take to bring out the rawness. It starts off with the slow but soothing title track and kicks off into full gear with the next song, “The Modern Age.” Lyrics can be attested to life while being young, relationships, taking drugs, and of course, the city of New York.

“Hard to Explain” being the first single and probably the catchiest track on the album creates a sense of going 'all gas no breaks,' with a fast-paced drum beat and synchronized guitars and Casablancas’s catchy choruses seen from him throughout the album. On “Trying Your Luck,” one of the sleepier tracks on the record, we see Casablancas's writing in a more vulnerable state-- having strong feelings for this individual, ready to risk it all and set sail with them, even if it means leaving his previous life behind.

“Last Nite”, being the third single and arguably the song that catapulted the band into stardom, sees the heavy influence from Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” with the gritty proto-punk sound and raspy vocals the band is renowned for. Previously seen on The Modern Age EP, the song sees Casablancas being comforted by his lover but pushes her away making her feel unwanted. The song includes one of the most iconic guitar intro riffs, with each instrument being introduced one by one before the vocals kick in-- which will definitely light up your next dive bar visit the next time you put this on the jukebox.

While the structure of the instrumentation throughout the record is not difficult by any means, it's still impressive how simple yet catchy the songs can be, making them instantly recognizable and fun to sing along to. With songs that make you look into the future with "Someday," or just be completely straight up in the chaos within "New York City Cops."

The success of Is This It (and the Strokes altogether) prompted a movement within the New York indie scene, seeing bands like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol rise to popularity, as well

as seeing a similar movement across the Atlantic in the U.K. with bands like the Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, and Bloc Party.

With the simplicity of The Strokes, it's hard to attest to why they got so popular. After all, you don’t have to be a guitar god or have legs of steel to play these songs on the drums. But it is because of that: they’re fun and high energy, and it's just the rawness and emotion they bring into the production of the music that makes them so good as well as being released in the time when most radio rock was just feeding off the post-grunge craze that died way before n the bands playing that genre even realized. The relatability of the lyrics is also a contribution to their success as Casablancas writes what most people living in the city and generally, most young people in their 20s and in college were experiencing: failed relationships, becoming heavy-drinking punks, and living the most freely chaotic lives one can.