Got to disagree. First single (produced by Bernard Butler) was amazing, but Mick Jones’s production on the album really let it down.
Bumping this thread for some 20th anniversary appreciation Is This It is firmly in my top 10 albums of all time. I was 19 turning 20 when it came out, and have memories of listening to this album on repeat (discman!), while riding a rickety old trolley bus to work, during the freezing cold winter of 2001. I still have the original LP pressing, and australian CD, both with 'New York City Cops'. Been enjoying this show quite a bit lately, from early 2002:
Nothing hey? I wonder if there's any b-sides or outtakes from the sessions, that haven't seen the light of day
Nothing they've announced, no. At the very least, they could have put out a 3LP version of Is This It in a box with the original B&W world cover on the front and the yellow fractal cover as the insert imagery, or a nice book version like they did for a limited release of The New Abnormal: LP1 Is This It ("world" version with NY Cops) - remastered LP2 Side A/The Modern Age EP 1. The Modern Age (ep version) 2. Last Night (ep version) 3. Barely Legal (ep version) Side B/B-sides 4. When it Started 5. Alone Together (home recording) 6. Is This Is (home recording) 7. Soma (live) LP3 Live Show 2002 (perhaps MTV $2 Bill)
I was a jaded 23 (!) year old when This Is It came out, having seen all of the good NYC rock n roll bands over the prior 6 or 7 years since I was a teenager... Dictators Waldos Andy G from the Devil Dogs The Mad Daddies (Hoboken, close enough) D Generation etc etc etc This was as rock and roll as the radio and MTV was ever gonna get again. The Strokes are excellent.
Their back catalogue offering was very limited at this point in time but it would have been good to mark the anniversary of what is generally noted as an important album.
I remember a 2 disc edition with the regular album on CD and a DVD was the second disc. There've been unoffiical releases with demos and unreleased early stuff, plus live radio sessions.
Relistening to this album this morning, I love how godd@mn efficient it is. Not an ounce of fat on it. Here's a breakdown of the guitar parts; figured I would capture this here for posterity, if anyone ever wondered who plays which part. (adapted from https://www.reddit.com/r/TheStrokes/comments/2glxu4/guitar_solos/) Is This It Lead (main riff): Albert Hammond Jr. Rhythm: Nick Valensi The Modern Age Lead (intro, main riff, chords before solo, solo): Nick Valensi Rhythm: Albert Hammond Jr. Soma Lead (main riffs): Albert Hammond Jr. Rhythm: Nick Valensi Barely Legal Lead ("solo", palm-muted chords): Nick Valensi Rhythm (main riff/intro, two-chord swipes): Albert Hammond Jr. Someday Lead (main riffs): Albert Hammond Jr. Rhythm: Nick Valensi Alone, Together Lead (main riff, chorus riff, mini-solo before 2nd chorus, solo): Nick Valensi Rhythm: Albert Hammond Jr. Last Nite Lead (chord swipes during verses, solo): Albert Hammond Jr. Rhythm (Ba-ba-baa, ba-ba, ba-na-na-na-na): Nick Valensi Hard to Explain Lead/Rhythm (main riff during first/third section, rhythm during 2nd/4th): Albert Hammond Jr. Rhythm/Lead (rhythm during 1st/3rd, main riff during 2nd/4th): Nick Valensi New York City Cops Lead (intro, solo): Nick Valensi Rhythm: Albert Hammond Jr. Both play the intro, but Albert Hammond Jr. comes in late. They also both play similar chords, as is with many songs, but in different locations Trying Your Luck Lead (main single-note riff, solo): Albert Hammond Jr. Rhythm (main chord riff): Nick Valensi Take It Or Leave It Lead (intro, main riff, solo): Albert Hammond Jr. Rhythm: Nick Valensi When It Started Lead (mostly plays rhythm, solo): Nick Valensi Rhythm (plays the main riff): Albert Hammond Jr.
I think Up The Bracket is a brilliant album bar a couple of so-so songs. The production suits the songs and performances perfectly, for me. Down In Albion, on the other hand, is absolutely hobbled by the cackhanded recording/engineering/mixing.
Down in Albion really was a timeshot in that time. I think the chaotic production just serves to that, personally.
Well, yeah. I think the good songs on the album shine through but I can see how some people wouldn't get past the presentation!
Thanks for this. Never thought about it but I enjoyed watching Valensi and Hammond Jr swapping their roles on stage last Sunday for almost every song. The Strokes are a fantastic band!
I'll repeat my question from last year: Does anyone else think that Albert Hammond jr. and Nick Valensi wrote all those guitar riffs on Is This It without receiving writing credits?
Good question. I've always been a bit fascinated by the songwriting credits (or lack thereof) on Is This It, one of the great guitar albums. "All tracks are written by Julian Casablancas." I've never actually seen any photos or videos of Julian playing guitar! lol
After resisting the charms of these coolest of the cool kids for over 20 years, I finally caved i and bought this album (as a second hand CD - other versions are hard to find in the shops these days). And despite all the hype, some of the songs are really good. I never need to hear Last Nite again, but Hard To Explain, the title track and The Modern Age really move, and I love the guitar interplay. Some very noticeable clipping mars the sound, but it's a modern rock CD. Whaddyagonnado?
One of my favorite bands. I've seen them 3 times live, and they are fantastic. My sister lived in NYC at the time and she gave me the debut CD for Christmas 2001. My first listen I was like, it's fine, kinda samey sounding... Over repeat listens, the songs differentiated themselves and then it started to hit me that these guys are fricking melody machines. The monochromatic sound of the album became an asset, it's part of the charm and gives them that "garage" cred.
i was also a sceptic back in the day, the hype machine was too much - a bunch of trust fund kids knocking out a derivative Velvets-meets-Television noise being hailed as saviors of rock’n’roll? Really? Give me the White Stripes or Queens of the Stone Age! And yet now, I have long had to accept Is This It? really IS a front-to-back classic and Julian Casablancas was the real deal, for a little while. Sure, new ground isn’t broken, but when the songs are that good, it just doesn’t matter. And in terms of how the music made you feel, well, I would argue it is certainly sort of new - it doesn’t have the transgressive, underground edge of the Velvets, the tightly coiled Television or the lairyness and violence of the Stooges. These are just young kids in New York, just singing about their lives and loves in a way that rock music hadn’t really done yet … Sexual conquests aren’t boasted about, girlfriends seem complicated and maybe annoying, rather than loved or lusted over, they don’t want to fight or drink, there’s no angst or anger, or joy or happiness, just a compelling Manhattan ennui. In terms of cultural impact, bringing in that wearily hip boredom was a refreshing and welcome break from the emo-rap-histrionics of nu metal or the glacial, cerebral art rock of Radiohead, and we can’t deny The Strokes huge influence on the neo-garage scene that followed. So maybe they did save something after all? (Their second album The Room Is On Fire is pretty great too, and it’s a shame they fell away on the second half of their third album, never to return the same).
I was surprised to learn this is basically the consensus. To me, that third record was a total lifeline in '06, I really have always resonated hardest with First Impressions. Otherwise, agree with everything else you said. Not only to NuMetal, but they were the antidote to the one same high pitched, earnest-choir-boy vocalist fronting every pop punk or emo band of the day.
A lot of Strokes fans are with you and like the third more than me - I like the first half, the opening three songs are outstanding, but it gets inconsistent afterwards. It was much longer than either of the first two albums - I don’t know that a Strokes album needs to be 50 minutes. Casablancas was perhaps reacting to critics of their second album by branching out, but I liked the band they were previously more!
I remember when the album came out, I was 20 at the time. I found it to be so much better than the new metal stuff that was in vogue at the time, it had more soul overall and it wasn't overproduced. Garage rock that inspired many other bands, especially in the UK. Fresh songs, great rock sound.
