'Is This It' is widely regarded as one of the finest indie albums of not just the last decade, but of all time.
Certainly the album sparked a whole new wave of excellent indie bands in both the UK and US, and this momentum lasted for most of the decade. But of all the albums and bands to kick-start the post-punk revival, how did something as dull, listless and unimaginative as 'Is This It' make the grade?
Take, for example, the second track on the album The Modern Age. The rhythm guitar strums at a steady pace throughout, and the bass and drums keep up with this speed set by said guitar. There’s not much of a riff on lead guitar, so for pretty much the whole song there are four rhythm instruments.
Then Casablancas’ voice comes in as a low monotonous drone. A mild distortion effect is placed on his vocals, and this does nothing but melt Casablancas’ dry tones into the bland, dishwater mix. The solo’s feeble attempts to jolt some sort of energy into this lifeless heap of a tune are suffocated by the overpowering mass of the rhythm section. All of the tracks on the album fit this loose structure with an overblown rhythm section and boring, uninspired riffs on lead.
There are a couple of exceptions to this general rule, Someday is a delightful slice of indie-pop melancholy reminiscence and is a refreshing break from the drudgery of the rest of the album. Last Nite, while as painfully over-rated as the album itself, still stands out from the mediocre trash that comprises 'Is This It'
There is an abundance of potential on 'Is This It', and all you have to do is listen to some of the band’s later singles to acknowledge that The Strokes are indeed a highly accomplished band. But the lo-fi recording on 'Is This It' makes a horribly muddled mess of what are already unexciting tunes, so the fact that this album achieved any level of success is absolutely bizarre.