eMusic Review
Forget about "Last Nite." The single that launched the Strokes is, to paraphrase NFL coach Dennis Green, what we thought it was: the riff from Tom Petty's "American Girl," an adolescent growl, too gutless to be big dumb rock, a song so dimensionally-challenged that it couldn't draw a square around a typical mid-'60s garage stomp. Is This It begins with a yawn — the resigned-sounding, sing-song title track hears frontman Julian Casablancas admitting, "I'm just way too tired" — and it turns out that boredom is the most authentic emotion on the Strokes 'debut. (Tellingly, the album also contains songs titled "Soma" and "Take It Or Leave It.")
It also turns out that boredom is the catalyst for nearly all of the strange and wonderful things that have happened in the history of rock 'n 'roll. Is This It was the 21st century's first masterpiece of blasé theatre, a conscious changing of the style guard by five privileged Manhattan prep-school types. Much has been written about the upper-crustiness of the band members, but the Strokes 'real advantage was their cultural affluence: early teenage years spent listening to Guided By Voices, the Velvet Underground and Television — bands most Gen… read more »
