Is This It The Strokes Artist

Blessed and cursed with an enormous amount of advance hype from the British press, {|the Strokes|} proved they were one of the few groups deserving of glowing reviews with {|Is This It|}. Granted, their faultless influences -- especially {|the Stooge... Read more

Blessed and cursed with an enormous amount of advance hype from the British press, {|the Strokes|} proved they were one of the few groups deserving of glowing reviews with {|Is This It|}. Granted, their faultless influences -- especially {|the Stooges|}, {|Lou Reed|}, and {|the Velvet Underground|} -- have critics' darlings written all over them. However, {|the Strokes|} don't rehash the sounds that inspire them; they remake them in their own image. The band's pop-inflected, second-generation take on late-'70s New York punk comes complete with raw, world-weary vocals, spiky guitars, and an insistently chugging backbeat that all sound familiar, but the songs on their debut album also reflect 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|}'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,|} one of their finest songs. 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 highs and lows of being young, jaded, and yearning to a wonderfully bouncy bassline; {|Alone Together|} and {|Trying Your Luck|} develop the group's brooding comedowns, 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 {|rock & 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. [In light of the World Trade Center disaster, the track {|New York City Cops|} was pulled from the U.S. release]. ~ Heather Phares Less