How many years does it take a middle-aged hipster to get past excessive hype for a band and finally listen to their album? The answer is, apparently, 21. Part of this exercise of examining albums from the 2000's is to push back on my music biases. One of my biggest biases was The Strokes. I was vaguely aware that they were Guided by Voices adjacent, but they were so buzzed about and from New York. I guess that was a death sentence for 21 years ago me. Had I known they wrote a song called "New York City Cops", which was pulled from Is This It due to 9/11, I may have been more receptive. Obviously, I have heard "Someday" and "Last Nite". I don't live in a cave. Yesterday was the first time I listened to Is This It in its entirety.
It's interesting how Interpol was constantly slagged by critics for ripping off Joy Division, but The Strokes could lean in hard on Lou Reed and ... crickets. Despite the blatant influence, I thought Is This It was pretty good. I also had no idea, until yesterday, that the video for "Someday" features a game of Family Feud, hosted by Richard Karn, between The Strokes and Guided by Voices. How is it possible I didn't know about that? Apparently, they did some opening gigs for GbV and were big fans. Unfortunately, they weren't an influence on their sound.
After a couple listens, it seemed like what they were doing on Is This It was influential on artists like Franz Ferdinand and Mikal Cronin. Most notably, the tracks "Barely Legal" and "Alone, Together". "Alone, Together" is my early leader for best song on Is This It. It's high energy with insistent, angular guitar strumming and it's a fantastic lead in to "Last Nite". In fact, it made me appreciate "Last Nite" more and it's overt homage to Iggy Popp's "Lust For Life". There are no duds on Is This It, but they also seem to only have one gear. It's a pretty good gear though. I will probably add this record to the collection. Peace.
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