The Strokes
Is This It
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AMG Review of Is This It
Heather Phares
All Music GuideBlessed and cursed with an enormous amount of hype from the British press, the Strokes prove to be one of the few groups deserving of their glowing reviews. Granted, their high-fashion appeal and faultless influences -- Television, the Stooges, and especially Lou Reed and the Velvets -- have "critics' darlings" written all over them. But like the similarly lauded Elastica and Supergrass before them, the Strokes don't rehash the sounds that inspire them -- they remake them in their own image. On the Modern Age EP, singles like Hard to Explain, and their full-length debut, Is This It, the N.Y.C. group presents a pop-inflected, second-generation take on late-'70s New York punk, complete with raw, world-weary vocals, spiky guitars, and an insistently chugging backbeat. However, their songs also reflected 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" -- a phrase that could apply to the Strokes themselves -- in the song'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," arguably the finest song they've written in their career. 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 joys of being young, jaded, and yearning to a wonderfully bouncy bassline; "Alone Together" and "Trying Your Luck" develop the group's brooding, coming-down side, 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 ock & 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 when those are few and far between. [In light of the World Trade Center disaster, the track "New York City Cops" was pulled from the U.S. release].
The Strokes Post #178
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the following is one of the Strokes' earliest gigs, at Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado on October 9th, 2001. Jules uses the word "fuck" in its various forms about 267 times, and the band sounds perfect. Like most of their early gigs, they play all of the songs from Is This It in consecutive order, with the exception of "When It Started", which they play after "Is This It" ("When It Started rep...
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what i was listening to this exact day last year.
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i was bored, thinking about another mog topic. and then i thought of it: what was I listening to this time last year?so i checked out windows media for the little collumn that says the date you add songs. so exactly one year ago, i was listening to:mos def...ghetto rockcommon....gothe strokes....juicebox (and cd is this it)so...i wasn't listening to much, but it was something. looks like a had ...
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The Strokes-Is This It?
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this album is pretty amazingi mean, you have to think about it..it's their debut cd and it's aweomse! alot of artists arent this great even after their 3rd or 4th albumso yea, this album rocks, in my opinion..it's the 2nd best from the strokes (the first is Room On Fire)comment me
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The whole decade of the aughts and this is it?!?
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Today, NME released their Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade. Click the link, and you can read the original reviews of their top 10 albums. It's a good list overall, a lot of great albums along with others with which I'm not quite familiar.But I must admit, their #1 bugs me. The Strokes' debut album got the top spot, as voted upon my the NME staff, and some bigshot rockstars past and present...
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MOG it up!
Are The Strokes the most important band of the decade?
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As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Is This It by The Strokes was named as the album of the decade by the NME. In fact, if you buy this week’s anniversary edition, you’ll find an essay style feature about The Strokes’ influence on music in this decade and why they’re so important. The [...]
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MOG it up!
Best of the Decade: NME's Top 100 Albums
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Britain's NME (or, in the old days, New Musical Express) has announced their list of the 100 best album of the decade as voted by musicians, producers, writers and record label executives.NME has a long history and, supposedly, some better perspective on veteran artists and the music they continue to produce today. Unfortunately, their list looks very much like the other British, independent a...
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The Strokes
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If I could just put this whole album on, I would, because every song is the best song, no kidding. Had to choose, so here's Barely Legal. Until a good friend left this in the CD player so I could have more of a listen, I'd known something was missing from my life and this was it. And, coincidentally, the album is called "Is This It?'. So I'd have to say 'well, yes, thank you, dear Strokes, th
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The Strokes, Again
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I had a craving for The Strokes today just before heading out to pick up my daughter at school. Then whoever was on my favourite Sirius Satellite Radio channel, Garage, played Razorblade. Just for me. Thanks! I don't have that album, so back home I'm playing Is This It instead:
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Sunday Under the Covers: Awesome Acoustic Cover Of Someday
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Check out these guys' other vids too, they all kick ass.
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what i was listening to this exact day last year.
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i was bored, thinking about another mog topic. and then i thought of it: what was I listening to this time last year?so i checked out windows media for the little collumn that says the date you add songs. so exactly one year ago, i was listening to:mos def...ghetto rockcommon....gothe strokes....juicebox (and cd is this it)so...i wasn't listening to much, but it was something. looks like a had ...
More >
The Strokes 'Is This It' voted number 1 album of the decade
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NME Magazine have released their 'Top 100 Albums of The Decade' list and The Stroke's debut LP 'Is This It' has been named number one.The Libertines' 2002 debut 'Up the Bracket' came in second, whilst Primal Scream's 'XTRMNTR' came in third.The...
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Strokes Album Named #1 Of The Decade by NME
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New Yorkers The Strokes 2001 debut album ‘Is This It’? has been voted the number one album of the decade in a poll by British music magazine NME. The Libertines, fronted by often troubled Pete Doherty, scored a hat trick of nominations in the Top 50 and came in second with their debut [...]
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The Strokes Post #269
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although this is yesterday's news, it's still freaking epic:NME has named IS THIS IT the #1 album of the decade.
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NME picks Is This It as greatest album of the 2000s
The new NME is out tomorrow and in it you will see its inevitable albums of the decade feature. The winning album in their poll, conducted with votes not just from their writers but other industry folk, is The Strokes‘ debut album, Is This It. It’s unsurprising, as are other entries in the top 10, [...]
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The Strokes Post #178
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the following is one of the Strokes' earliest gigs, at Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado on October 9th, 2001. Jules uses the word "fuck" in its various forms about 267 times, and the band sounds perfect. Like most of their early gigs, they play all of the songs from Is This It in consecutive order, with the exception of "When It Started", which they play after "Is This It" ("When It Started rep...
More >
The Strokes-Is This It?
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Artist:
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Album:
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Track:
this album is pretty amazingi mean, you have to think about it..it's their debut cd and it's aweomse! alot of artists arent this great even after their 3rd or 4th albumso yea, this album rocks, in my opinion..it's the 2nd best from the strokes (the first is Room On Fire)comment me
More >
Counting Down The '00s: The Best Of 2001
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Our countdown of the '00s continues with the presentation of our favorite albums and singles of 2001, a year that will always have a futuristic glow in the eyes of 20th century children since this was the year that usually signified the future in sci-fi literature and cinema.The new music that dominated in 2001, however, was anything but futuristic. The main influences of the new rock
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 "Is This It")
