Track Listing

1. Is This It
2. The Modern Age
3. Soma
4. Barely Legal
5. Someday
6. Alone, Together
7. Last Nite
8. Hard To Explain
9. New York City Cops
10. Trying Your Luck
11. Take It Or Leave It

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #433 in Music
• Released on: 2001-08-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
With all the media hype that dogged the Strokes before the release of their debut album, it's rather apt that they chose the title Is This It?. On the strength of just five songs, released over two singles, the Strokes were being hailed as everything from the saviours of rock & roll to the Saviour Himself. Surely, few bands could live up to the impossibly high standards set for this young five-piece, but they needn't have worried: Is This It? is one of the most exciting and energetic debut albums to spring from New York's long-dormant club scene. In fact, the Strokes are a New York City band through-and-through; like the Velvet Underground, these are a bunch of uptown artsy types elegantly slumming downtown to the tried-and-tested themes of sex, drugs and rock & roll. Their singer/songwriter, the fantastically named Julian Casablancas, delivers his lyrics with a weary nonchalance that belies his age on songs such as the title track, "Soma", "Hard to Explain" and the altogether wonderful "Barely Legal", while the band recall the likes of Television and the Stooges on "NYC Cops", "Last Night" and "The Modern Age". Sexy, stylish and undeniably cool, here's hoping that the Strokes are the future of rock & roll. --Robert Burrow

CD Description
Debut album which reinvents the 1975 New York era of Television, The Ramones and Blondie. A retro attitude with a contemporary dose of punk fuelled rock 'n' roll. Includes the hitsingle, 'Last Nite'.

Customer Reviews

The best rock and roll band for twenty years
I saw the Strokes play the Liverpool L2, and had the privelege of meeting them after the show. They were cool, handsome, affable, and utterly brilliant performers. I bought the album the next day and was blown away. There is not one song on this album that is not at the very least amazing. My favourite song is whichever track is playing at the moment - it's that consistent. It's a wonderful throwback to garage rockers like the Stooges, and to the CBGB scene of the late seventies, with inventive chord progressions, bass-led harmonies, bluesy guitar solos, and witty lyrics that are sometimes funny and sometimes so sad. Someday and Trying Your Luck are achingly beautiful, while The Modern Age, Last Nite and New York City Cops are clever, self assured, and very much rocking. The album is so good that it seems wrong to single out songs...it's tuneful, sexy, and after so much boring jangly Dadrock and idiotic commercial 'punk' clogging up the charts, it's great to see a real rock and roll band finally kicking out the jams. It's the best album I've heard since the Doors' debut LP...and it doesn't get any better than that.

So Catchy
I love this CD. I bought it spontaneously after hearing NOTHING of theirs, just read a few good reviews and decided to take a chance. I'm so glad that I have. Okay, so while you're listening to it, you think "that sounds a bit like "such and such" and everyone has said how derivative it is...but at the end of the day, so what? It's just damn catchy music. Great to start your day with on your discman because it just puts you in a good frame of mind. Now if i can only wean myself off it. After seeing what other Strokes fans had purchased I also bought the White Stripes "White Blood Cells" totally on speculation and though they arent overly similar to The Strokes, I have to say that it's a really enjoyable and raw sounding album too. Great Stuff.

I can't stop playing this
Forget what has been written about the band in the press, if it's putting you off buying this. So what if it's not completely original - what music is? This is an exciting, vibrant, pulsating gem of a record. Other people have said they've not felt this excited since Oasis' debut in '94. I'd go back to '89 and say not since The Stone Roses have I felt so excited about a record or a band.

If you like your rock fast, simple, and fun, filled with enthusiasm and life, then this is the album to buy. It's not rocket science, sure, but it is better than a lot of what's out there at the moment.

If you like your rock contemplative and meaningful (like I usually do) then give it a chance. Don't be a rock snob, get Is This It and revitalise your life!!!

We'll see if they do turn out to be the saviours of rock, but for now they are enough to make me glad to have ears.