Yes, it is pretty strange - an American band, but the album was massively delayed in the US missing one of the key songs and different artwork. If there was any kind of re-issue, I would guess they'd probably just use the artwork as originally issued in each territory? Easy way of creating different variants too, to get hardcore fan buying multiple copies. I'd hope any kind of deluxe release would have all the pre-album demos.
I found this an interesting take - whilst not wholly generous, it at least "shows its workings"... Only Solitaire blog: The Strokes: Is This It I will confess to some prejudice against boarding / private school rock, which I know is unfair - my issue not theirs ...
Maybe since censorship and tastes have changed in the US, then the Strokes would re-issue the album for it's 20th with the original cover, even in the states. That would certainly differentiate it from the original American LP over here.
I saw this thread and gave the album a play this morning. Still my favourite of theirs and an album where I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard it. Also remember taking a train to Liverpool to see Echo & The Bunnymen in summer 2001 with The Modern Age EP on a Walkman along with some Ooberman (forgotten indie band whose bass player was in the Bunnymen for the gig). Always felt the versions on the EP were better than the album recordings, especially Barely Legal. While I was up the ‘pool, I bought Hard To Explain on CD from Probe. Again, slightly different version of New York City Cops on the B-side - no coke sniffing sound at the end.
Well from what I saw of that video it only confirms my suspicion that talentless offsprings of multimillionares can bluff it through given enough money thrown at it.
Not to say that it's not a great album, because it is, but I think some of the appeal with this album and the Strokes in general is being there at the time. There was a lot of buzz and hype surrounding these guys, and when I picked up the album I definitely got into it for a time. I think what killed it for me a bit was seeing them live. It was basically the album played out of order plus New York City Cops. I'd read articles about all sorts of Iggy Pop, etc type antics on the stage, but they just stood there. It wasn't bad per se, just wasn't RAWK like I wanted it to be. Honestly, there are other albums of theirs that I think are better (First Impressions of Earth) but Is This It is always the one I go to.
Putting an artist down for having wealthy parents always makes me laugh. As if any of us choose our parents. As if many, many popular and famous musicians didn't come from wealth... It's ok for doctors, lawyers and politicians to come from wealthy families, but artists and musicians can't, according to some people. I guess the guys in the Strokes should have all become Wall Street bros instead of playing guitars and writing songs, because that would have made more sense
I had a big argument with another producer friend of mine who said this record sounded like Dogs$%t....and was bugging their....manager maybe?...back in the day to do the 2nd one. I don't like to be discouraging....However.......I told him "No way in hell will you even be considered." He asked me "Why?" I said: "Because that first record sounds EXACTLY the way it is supposed to sound, it sounds GREAT!...What do you want to do next? Go "Clean-up" White Light White Heat? The only problem here is that YOU DON'T GET IT!! Because you're a Math-Rock, Studio sausage who doesn't understand Rock n' Roll." He couldn't understand that there are things in this world he will never understand. So he had this whole plan on how he would turn The Strokes into Nickleback....Which they should have been all along....According to him. Hey, real friends tell friends the truth, whether they want to hear it or not. And besides that a.....well, I don't know how wise he was, but he definitely managed to pull a few things off....man...once told me: "It's either a hit....or it's not....You know that in 5 seconds, whether it's your tune or someone else's" When I heard this record I wasn't thinking engineering minutia....The parts came together as a whole..and made all that irrelevant. I was thinking HIT!
Yeah.....And I'm not a Strokes fanatic.....I like a lot of their songs, but that's about where it ends. But I remember they took a LOT of flack for being rich kids back in the day......which they were... ......but they were DAMN GOOD rich kids!!!
Maybe some of the flack was because they were compared to the White Stripes, who was a working class band. But whatever. The Strokes grew up the way they did and diverted from their parents' paths. Good on them for seeking their own creativity and life when they could have instead played it much safer.
Definitely agree their sound was better on the EP. Sounded more raw. I wonder if there are any versions of the rest of the album recorded in that style. That would make such a bonus edition anniversary album worth buying for me alone.
That's what I would be looking for in a deluxe anniversary set, raw early studio takes. Home demos don't excite me all that much. Plus just a great complete live show from 2001 when they only did a 14-song set, the full album + When It Started, Ze Newie (early Between Love & Hate) and A Salty Salute (Guided By Voices cover). Maybe some radio sessions? They were such a tight unit then...
I saw the Is This It tour in Oslo with Stereo Total supporting, and it was pandemonium. I was standing at the balcony and thought the club was gonna fall apart. The whole crowd was pogoing and singing each and every line for the some 50 minutes they were on. They played the whole album, plus two or three other tracks. It was very enjoyable seeing a band at the top of their game tearing a proper venue apart. I knew that it couldn't be topped, and never saw them again. Maybe they went on to do better things? I honestly don't know. Would be fun hearing the album again. Still have the Rough Trade LP somewhere (which I see is going for crazy money on Discogs).
When Is This It came out, my friend Jason (well aware of my obsession with Television and Gang Of Four) loaned it to me and said, "You're going to love this." And I did. For nearly a year I had to put on Is This It first thing in the morning. It was refreshing to hear a new band come from such an underappreciated direction and to proudly display those influences while adding a new spin. OK so they were cute upper middle class kids but big deal, so were the Rolling Stones. Unlike the Stones, the Strokes ran out of gas pretty quickly. Room On Fire had some standout tracks but was not as consistent as the first album. By this point, Strokes clone bands were popping up left and right, diluting their once-unique sound down to generic indie rock with more style than substance. After that I lost interest. I have the same Is This It LP (with the white cover) that I bought in 2001 and it still sounds great. One small thing. What initially grabbed me about the Strokes was their great guitar riffs. When I purchased Is This It, I noticed every track is credited to Julian Casablancas alone. I have a stong suspicion those riffs were written (uncredited) by their guitarists. Am I wrong?
For most of 2001, all they played live were the 11 songs on the album. Because that’s all they had. The gigs were 35 minutes long. It wasn’t really until the fall shows in North America that new material started to creep into the live set: “When it Started” was first to arrive, followed by “Meet Me in the Bathroom”, with “Ze Newie” getting its debut toward the very end of the year. The GBV cover was a one-off (at the time, anyway) for the New Year’s Eve show. There was a great radio broadcast of the Belfast Limelight show in June, and, IIRC, a broadcast of one of the Aussie shows.
I'm discovering that returning these 'indie rock' classics for the first time in years is largely proving to be disapointing - for me, many aren't half as good as I remembered them being. I can't in all honesty say I was smitten by the Strokes, but I did enjoy this album a lot when it came out and thankfully it still sounds really enjoyable to me. I still believe there are a number of weaker tracks on the album, however there are some really amazing ones too and overall it's a decent album in my opinion.
I listen to Is This It a few times a year probably, and I gave it a play last night actually after reading this thread. I think Is This It still stands as a good album from that 2001-2004 scene. I would also add that White Blood Cells, Up The Bracket, and Fever To Tell have also aged well from that time, but otherwise I would agree that no much more from that time has aged as well sadly.
The Stones were all working class apart from Jagger, who came from a middle class background but certainly not upper middle class (his father was a gym teacher). Likewise, when your father is head of the Elite modelling agency and is so wealthy he can send you to a boarding school in Switzerland (when you live in the US), I’d say that invalidates you from being middle class, upper or otherwise. None of which matters with regards to the music.
I skewed 'Stripes rather Strokes back then, but recognise how influential the latter were. It is interesting to see how much more prolific Jack White has been since then. I think this is more rock than indie, but the other guitar band from that era that more than holds up is the Reigning Sound - they never broke into the mainstream {probably and unfairly because Greg Cartwright was not pretty enough}, but Time Bomb High School (2002) and Too Much Guitar (2004) are as good as any of the neo-garage rock touchstones (IMHO) ...
