The Strokes - Is This It (2001) [2002, US Version + DVD]

Blessed and cursed with an enormous amount of advance hype from the British press, the Strokes proved they were one of the few groups deserving of glowing reviews with Is This It. Granted, their faultless influences — especially the Stooges, Lou Reed, and the Velvet Underground — have “critics’ darlings” written all over them. However, the Strokes don’t rehash the sounds that inspire them; they remake them in their own image. he band’s pop-inflected, second-generation take on late-’70s New York punk comes complete with raw, world-weary vocals, spiky guitars, and an insistently chugging backbeat that all sound familiar, but the songs on their debut album also reflect their own early-twenties lust for life. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Julian Casablancas and the rest of the band mix swaggering self-assurance with barely concealed insecurity on “The Modern Age” and reveal something akin to earnestness on “Barely Legal”‘s soaring choruses. The group revamps “Lust for Life” on “New York City Cops” and combines their raw power and infectious melodies on “Hard to Explain,” one of their finest songs. Nearly half of Is This It consists of their previously released material, but that’s not really a disappointment since those songs are so strong. What makes their debut impressive, however, is that the new material more than holds its own with the tried-and-true songs. “Is This It” sets the highs and lows of being young, jaded, and yearning to a wonderfully bouncy bassline; “Alone Together” and “Trying Your Luck” develop the group’s brooding comedowns, while “Soma,” “Someday,” and “Take It or Leave It” capture the Strokes at their most sneeringly exuberant. Able to make the timeworn themes of sex, drugs, and rock & roll and the basic guitars-drum-bass lineup seem new and vital again, the Strokes may or may not be completely arty and calculated, but that doesn’t prevent Is This It from being an exciting, compulsively listenable debut. ― Allmusic

CD
01. Is This It – 02:35
02. The Modern Age – 03:33
03. Soma – 02:38
04. Barely Legal – 03:58
05. Someday – 03:07
06. Alone, Together – 03:12
07. Last Nite – 03:18
08. Hard to Explain – 03:48
09. When It Started – 02:57
10. Trying Your Luck – 03:27
11. Take It or Leave It – 03:16

DVD
01. Last Nite
02. Hard To Explain
03. Someday
04. New York City Cops
05. The Modern Age

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LMA_THST.2001.ITI.US_CD+Scans.rar
LMA_THST.2001.ITI.US_DVD.rar
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