The Strokes - "Is This It" Review (2001):

Intro:

In Many Ways, This album is Hard to Explain. Is This It; when it first came out was, in fact, a big deal. Last Nite i gave this album my 10th Listen in the past Month; and Someday, it'll be an 11th.

anyways...

actual review:

Holy bjeebus this album is awesome, and pitchfork summed it up perfectly in just 5 words, "an incredibly solid rock record." and that's hard to find in the modern age I'd argue. my working theory is: Many'll miss the good ol' days of over-the-top rock (Such as any band from the 1980s), and that when this came out; they listened to it and their skulls imploded after hearing the first riff on Alone Together. (that was my reaction, the sight was not pretty.)

If we're looking at this album from a production standpoint, i have to give it credit for it's influence over... nearly the entire 2000s indie/Rock scene with it's "Stripped down" style, i like to say. it really revitalised the Genre at a time where rock was failing. this album inspired some of the best acts of the 2000s/2010s, Like Vampire Weekend, Wolf Alice and Franz Ferdinand; so i also have to give it credits there for it's influence over them. the albums style, compared to albums released the same year could be compared to other garage rock acts of the time like The Black Keys or The White Stripes (both of which have albums on the same level as this one, reviews coming soon)

The Lyricism is also strong on this album, even if i have no clue what to make of it; i like it. Julian Casablanca's Vocal Style is unique, because if i were to show you a song from that album, you could probably identify for a couple of reasons, like the voice effect used on the songs or just his falsetto moments on certain tracks.

as i said in last week's review of Paramore's "Riot!" the instrumentation felt sloppy on that album and brought it down quite a bit. but as for this album, it doesn't share the same weakness that Riot does. the instrumentation does something and boosts this album's feel all the way through.

although, as much as i am singing praise of this album. it's not just positives, unfortunately. one of my biggest nit-picks of this album is the fact that most of the tracks sound VERY alike, it feels like they just used the same stuff over and over again. as if they said "here's some really good, if identical songs. take it or leave it." and then walked out of the studio (this is obviously very jokey). So you're trying your luck if you say that the tracks are varied (i guess you could make an exception for Someday, but that's about it.)

In Conclusion, this album did something. it help boost the indie rock scene of a decade, and influenced subsequent masterpieces to come in the following 22 and-a-half years since it's release, so we should all think this album for that. just know that Room on Fire is still better.

9/10

Grade: Wish it was varied more, but nevertheless Excellent.