Was this it?

With the strokes set for a global comeback in 2019, we look at their decade defining debut and music it inspired.

It’s easy to forget the lull music was in at the beginning of the millennium, come and gone had the intensity of grunge with the tragic death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, the britpop generation were now entering their thirties and even Oasis seemed to be growing up.

What guitar music needed was a shake up, a return to music your parents wouldn’t like and more importantly have attitude. A band who would change the way people dress, the way people think and act. A band that would make holding a guitar cool again. A band that mattered.

Enter The Strokes, five resident New Yorkers looking as if they’d strolled out of Andy Warhol’s factory in 197, Ripped up jeans, leather jackets, cigarettes and an abundance of hair. This wasn’t evolution but revolution, They would be criticised as ‘style of substance’ but it didn’t matter, one look at them and you knew. They looked like a gang, like an urban tribe and that they were somebody’s but would the music be unto much?. The first release was of a song that in the following decade would become the dance floor anthem for every indie disco, this was ‘Last Nite’ (given away free by the NME) Julian told producer Gordon Raphael exactly how he wanted it to sound ‘like a band from the past that took a time trip to the future’, that’s exactly what it was, all of the music before them especially from their hometown (The Velvet Underground, Television and Ramones) the music video that followed was shot to capture this perfectly, looking more like a American TV special from the 1970’s rather than 2001 with the band playing live (the only way RCA could get them to do a video, subsequently copied by the Arctic monkeys with ‘bet you look good on the dancefloor’) the spirit of the saviours New York and maybe rock and roll?. The video culminating with guitars being smashed and drum kits volleyed into pieces, what else could you want?.

The album that followed would be voted NME’s album of the decade, had the perfect start to life. once again showing it isn’t always the music that hits you first, the album cover which perfectly summed up the songs on ‘is this it’ was banned in America, replaced with a more sedate and far less interesting image deemed suitable for the Walmarts of bland America (I won’t even include this as the original is far better and is the only one the world needs).

The albums opens with an incoherent synth that departs as soon as it started before the laid back drums come in with a tempo that will be familiar to the first half the album. Is this it draws you in, Julian Casablancas almost whispering the lyrics to you recalling the story of last night, ‘can’t you see I’m trying? I don’t even like it, I just lied to get to your apartment’ you can hear the angst, the frustration, the lust of youth. The song finishes with the brilliant ‘I’m just way too tired’ and abruptly ends as if the conversation you’ve been having is clearly over as he doesn’t care anymore.

“Can’t you see I’m trying?
I don’t even like it
I just lied to
Get to your apartment”

After the personal and angst on the opener, The modern age sounds like what you expect from the New Yorkers, a fuzzed up stomp with a blistering guitar solo that will become a feature throughout.

Someday is The Strokes at their best, there hasn’t been a dance floor that’s not been immediately filled after the opening 2 second of this song. It’s infectious, it’s simple, it makes get up off your chair. The bass and drum break in the middle is more than a nod to Motown. “I say alone we stand, together we fall apart/yeah i think i’ll be alright” the singer can finally be happy someday.

Then comes the song that began it all. It doesn’t matter if they ripped off tom petty’s American girl. This song defined a decade, defined a generation. I dread to think about the rest of the music this decade would have produced without this song. It’s another dance floor filler that’s been played at every indie disco since it came out. Not bad for a band of style and no substance. A tale of young love that isn’t always idyllic “No girlfriends they can’t understand” continuing with the Motown ethos of singing quite sombre lyrics to brilliantly catchy upbeat music. It’s again simple, again with a brilliant guitar solo and doesn’t stay too long, just as your enjoying it like with ‘someday’ it stops and makes you want to press play again. Next comes ‘Hard to explain’, opening with electronic drums and a space age riff this builds and builds to easily the best chorus of the album “It’s hard to explain/I said the right things/But act the wrong way/I like it right here/but i cannot stay” feelings most young people figuring out the world have dealt with.

 girls lie too much
And boys act too tough
Enough is enough

If the is this it started by bringing you gently into their world, then take it or leave it leaves you with your heart racing. Once again the first thing you hear out of Julians mouth is ‘Leave me alone’, like most of the best songs it’s about a girl. The paranoia of young love  “Well, on the minds/Of other men/I know she was” and the bitter repeated “He’s gonna let you down” tells you all need to know about the mindset of the writer. A very fitting end to the album.

“It’s that feeling when you hear your favourite song. That feeling, whether you’re in a car, at a party or alone at home or in bed and you hear this song and it just hits you so strong – that’s what we aim for.”

(Julian Casablancas Dutch TV interview, July 2001)

Is This it is a masterpiece. Its rough around the edges and that’s what music needed. Writing this in 2019, there’s no band around with the might or just fucking edge The Strokes had. It kicked the dust of rock and roll and kicked it back into life. It makes you wonder if we’ll see a band like this again.

Cover Image credit: Colin Lane