The Strokes – Is This It

incredible piece of 2000’s new york rock scene. must hear

Is This It is a great high energy album. I personally enjoy the strokes a lot, and do not understand some of the hate they get. I think that The Strokes deserve fame. The obvious choices for favorites on this album are the hits Last Nite, Someday, Barely Legal, and Hard to Explain, which I think are all amazing, but my favorite is the title track 'Is This It'. I love the gtr and vox on that song but especially the bass. My only critique is the songs sometimes sound very similar. Depending on how you look at it this could just be cohesiveness though.

The Strokes' debut <i>Is This It</i> is truly the <i>Nevermind</i> of the 2000s, a record that broke open doors for an underground scene (indie) to rise up and dominate for the remainder of the decade. Bursting forth from the bland gray ashes of the '90s alternative nation, The Strokes singlehandedly made rock and roll fun again by showing the mainstream a whole host of late '70s and early '80s influences that never quite got their due, especially the CBGB's sound of NYC. The title track immediately introduces the new sound with the miked-up pounding of Fab Moretti and the filtered vocals of Julian Casablancas, the sound of which would be oft-imitated for the next four years, especially with the rise of Franz Ferdinand and the Killers. But what makes the Strokes especially appealing are the melodic basslines of Nikolai Fraiture and the twin guitar attack of Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., all of whom fill in every possible space in the music to produce something dense, raw, and tightly-wired. Unfortunately, the attack on the World Trade Center would cause the band to remove the excellent "New York City Cops" from their debut album before it came out in the U.S., but there's still an impressive array of modern rock classics to be treasured here, including "The Modern Age," "Someday," "Last Nite," and "Hard to Explain." Wow.