Is This It is the debut studio album by American rock band the Strokes. It was first released on July 30, 2001, in Australia, with RCA Records handling the release internationally and Rough Trade Records handling the United Kingdom release. It was recorded at Transporterraum in New York City with producer Gordon Raphael during March and April 2001. For their debut, the band strived to capture a simple sound that was not significantly enhanced in the studio. Building on their 2001 EP The Modern Age, the band members molded compositions largely through live takes during recording sessions, while lead singer and songwriter Julian Casablancas continued to detail the lives and relationships of urban youth in his lyrics.
After completing the album, the Strokes embarked on a promotional world tour before its release. The album was released progressively to coincide with their tour dates, with it being released in Japan on August 22 and the United Kingdom on August 27. After the September 11 attacks, the American compact disc release was delayed from September 25 to October 9 and had its track list amended, with the song "New York City Cops" being removed and replaced with the newly written track "When It Started"; however, the American vinyl release still includes the track as a result of its release falling on September 11. Three singles were released from the album: "Hard to Explain", "Last Nite", and "Someday".
Promoted by the music press for its twin-guitar interplay and melodic, pop-influenced sound, Is This It peaked at number 33 on the US Billboard 200 and number two on the UK Albums Chart, going on to achieve platinum status in several countries. The album received widespread acclaim upon release, with critics praising it for its charisma and rhythm, which often referenced the works of 1970s garage rock bands. The release of the album was a watershed moment, and crucial in the reinvention of post-millennium guitar music. As a result, Is This It is widely considered to be one of the most influential albums of all time, and has appeared in many publications' lists of the best albums of the 2000s and of all time.
Background In 1998, the Strokes consisted of singer Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Casablancas's stepfather and Moretti's and Fraiture's older brothers introduced the quartet to the music of reggae artist Bob Marley, protopunk group the Velvet Underground, and alternative rock band Jane's Addiction. Discussing the formative stages of the group, Moretti noted, "Our music was, like, [the Doors'], but trying to be classical. We all took music classes and tried writing songs, and when we put them together they were this crazy amalgam of insane ideas that we thought was really cool." In 1998, Albert Hammond Jr., whom Casablancas knew from his time at a Swiss boarding school, moved to New York City to attend film school and joined the Strokes as a second guitarist. His arrival provided the catalyst for the band's musical and emotional evolution.Roach, p. 25
By 2000, all band members had part-time jobs and were practicing new material several nights a week in a small hired recording space. In the fall of that year, their demo caught the attention of Ryan Gentles, a talent booker at New York City's Mercury Lounge. He scheduled the Strokes for four December gigs. With support from personal mentor JP Bowersock and producer Gordon Raphael, the band recorded three tracks which later appeared on Is This It: "The Modern Age", "Last Nite", and "Barely Legal". British label Rough Trade Records was impressed by the songs and released them as a January 2001 extended play titled The Modern Age. Music press reaction was very positive and the Strokes embarked on a sold-out UK tour, followed by US support slots for alternative rock groups Doves and Guided by Voices. Gentles quit his job to manage the band full-time and, in March 2001, the Strokes signed to RCA Records after a protracted bidding war.
Recording and production After the deal with RCA, the Strokes started working with Gil Norton, who had produced recordings for alternative rock group Pixies. Although the two parties developed a rapport, the band were unhappy with the results of preliminary sessions which they thought sounded "too clean" and "too pretentious"; the three songs recorded with Norton were scrapped.Roach, p. 68 Like The Modern Age, Is This It was eventually recorded with Gordon Raphael at Transporterraum in Manhattan's East Village in New York City. The studio is located in a basement with poor lighting, but despite its poor infrastructure, it includes modern Pro Tools digital audio workstation hardware. The Strokes liked Raphael's lack of ego and formed a good collaborative relationship with the producer.
Before recording started, the Strokes and Raphael organized a listening session with the musical material Hammond and Casablancas had brought to show the tone and energy they liked. At the meeting, the band said they wanted to go in a different direction than contemporary music. Casablancas wanted Is This It to sound like "a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record". The approach for the album became more studied than that of The Modern Age. The group wanted the majority of songs to sound like them playing live, while they requested a few others to be like "a weird, in-studio production with a drum machine, even though no drum machine was used". The songs of the latter type were done track-by-track and were crafted into non-standard rock arrangements. Raphael's background in industrial music played a large part in the album's conception.
During six weeks in the studio, the Strokes' gritty sound became the emphasis of the sessions.Roach, p. 70 The band usually recorded songs only once, based on Casablancas's preference for "raw efficiency". RAT effects pedals and overdriving amplifiers were used at times, "taking sounds, disintegrating them and then bringing them back". The band wanted things to be only slightly stressed, with no heavy-handedness in terms of studio effects; only distortion and reverse echo were widely used. Throughout the process, Raphael improvised according to the reactions that he got from the group. At one point, he had to cope with the threat of eviction from his Transporterraum studio, but once the Strokes received backing from RCA, time and money were no longer pressing concerns. The label's A&R delegate initially did not like what had been recorded and felt that the album was not going to be professional enough. The producer and the band were given complete control only when Casablancas persuaded the delegate by playing him some of the new material on a boom box.
Inspired by the Velvet Underground's production and the direct approach of punk rock band Ramones, the miking scheme for the drum kit included only three microphones: one above it, one for the bass drum, and one in the corner of the studio.Roach, p. 61 It was crafted to capture "a compressed, explosive sound". On Moretti's advice, the transfer from the two loud guitars and the rumble of the bass picked up by the drum-kit microphones was not eliminated. The guitars were recorded more simply; Hammond and Valensi both used Fender DeVille amps on opposite sides of the room, while Raphael positioned a mic on each. The sound was then fed directly into a preamp with no equalization. Valensi commented that guitar teacher and mentor Bowersock was invaluable because he was articulating things to the producer that the group could not.Roach, p. 71 While the rest of the Strokes played to a click track, Casablancas sang through a small Peavey practice amp to retain a sense of low fidelity on the album. Raphael mixed as he went along to maintain control of the record until the final mastering stage; the producer aimed to show the Strokes a final product as soon as the band finished performing a track.
Composition Lyrics
Casablancas's writing discusses life and relationships of young people in New York City. Exemplifying this theme, "The Modern Age" is a rant about the oddness of modern life.Roach, p. 32 "Barely Legal" concerns a girl who has just arrived at the age of consent. Discussing its risqué nature, Moretti has stated, "It should be taken the way you interpret it. The lyrics mean different things to different people."Roach, p. 33 "Alone, Together" continues the sexual theme by dropping hints about cunnilingus,Roach, p. 76 while the yelp at the start of "New York City Cops" was created as a pastiche of rock band Aerosmith. "Soma" takes influence from the fictional drug in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World. Here Casablancas is discussing drug use to fit in with the cool crowd. During the studio sessions, Casablancas introduced tracks with comic lines and some quips were used when the album was mixed.
Music Musically, Is This It has been described as a garage rock revival, indie rock, and post-punk revival album. All songs on the album were mixed using 11 or fewer audio tracks. According to Valensi, the album contains "no gimmicks, no tricks" to try to get the listener to like the compositions. It opens with the title track, which features a simple, metronomic drum line, a recurring feature in the rest of the record. Containing one of the slowest tempos, "Is This It" is the Strokes' attempt at a ballad. "The Modern Age" follows and includes a guitar riff accompanied by a complementary drum line. Its staccato verse is followed by an upbeat, singalong chorus and a guitar solo. Discussing the album's simplicity and measured approach, Valensi has commented, "We don't put in a guitar solo just to have one." "Soma" incorporates jerky rhythms and starts and ends with the same guitar and drum chimes, while "Barely Legal" contains some of the album's softer guitar melodies inspired by Britpop as well as drumming patterns that evoke the sound of primitive 1980s drum machines.
The fifth track on the record, "Someday", is infused with rockabilly elements and interlocking guitar lines, the latter a recurring element of Is This It. "Alone, Together" is driven by a staccato rhythm, and climaxes first with a guitar solo, then a repeat of the central guitar hook. "Last Nite" is also a guitar-driven song, but leans towards pop music influences. At its core, there are reggae-inspired rhythm guitar lines played by Hammond, and studio noise effects. The rhythm section plays simple interlocking notes and beats. Like "Soma", "Hard to Explain" contains processed drum tracks using dynamic range compression and equalization studio techniques to make them sound like a drum machine. The song incorporates spliced ad-libbing extras from Casablancas, a feature also used on "New York City Cops". "Trying Your Luck", the album's mellowest point, follows and shows more melancholic vocals. The last track on Is This It, "Take It or Leave It", is the only song in which Hammond used the bridge pickup of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.
Packaging The international cover art of Is This It is by Colin Lane and features a photograph of a woman's rear and hip, with a leather-gloved hand suggestively resting on it. The model was Lane's then-girlfriend, who explained that the photoshoot was spontaneous and happened after she came out of the shower naked. Lane recalled that a stylist had left the glove in his apartment and noted, "We did about 10 shots. There was no real inspiration, I was just trying to take a sexy picture." The result was included in the book The Greatest Album Covers of All Time, in which Grant Scott, one of the editors, noted influences from the works of Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin. Scott concluded, "It's either a stylish or graphically strong cover or a sexist Smell the Glove travesty." Although British retail chains HMV and Woolworths objected to the photograph, they stocked the album without amendment.