The Strokes

The Strokes
are an American indie rock band whose first album, entitled “Is This It?”, was released in October 2001 in the US. The album was well bought in both the mainstream and independent media such as a four star review by Rollingstone magazine.

The strokes are made up of lead singer Julian Casablanca’s rhythm guitar Nick Valensi rhythm guitar Albert Hammond Jr. and Fabritzio Morreti on drums.

The first track entitled “Is this it”? is a very catchy (like most of there songs) tune that believe me has you singing it for days after you hear it. Out of all the instruments in this song I like the bass the most simply because of the beat.

It is then followed by “the modern age” a fast paced track with great vocals (although the first words of the song are a bit weak “upon a hill is where we begin”.

The next three tracks along side with “trying your luck” and “take it or leave it” (which i will get to later on) are my personal favourites, first up is “soma” which is again like most of there songs extremely catchy and has great deep vocals. Then there is “barely legal” which has great rhythm guitar from both nick and Albert along with great drums.

The next four songs are the songs I find the weakest (don’t get me wrong, I like all of them but I think The Strokes can do much better). First its “alone together which has a great guitar part but just isn’t my type of song, then there is “Last night” which is probably the catchiest of all songs, but although it will have you sing it forever after you listen to it, it still cant be compared to other songs on the album. Then there is the song that I think is most loved by the fans “hard to explain” which is like all of there songs a great song but again can’t be compared to other songs on the album.

The next song is different in the US version than in the UK version, this is because the song entitled “New York city cops” was taken out of the US album because of 9/11. Instead the US version got the song when it started which I can tell you is much better live than studio. The song “New York city cops” however is brilliant both live and studio, the song starts with an electronic drum which I loved.

Now for the last two songs which are both how an album should end. First up it’s the tenth track on the album “Trying your luck”, this song is absolutely amazing, it has both melodic vocals and upbeat vocals, with both guitars and the bass sounding just right to fit in with the lyrics, definitely one of my favourites. Then the last song “take it or leave it” one of the best songs on the album but with a very simple chorus and pre-chorus, this of coarse could only be done by the strokes the simplest of bands, but even if you like those 80’s rock 30 minute solos I think you will still enjoy listening to this, like many others I am pretty certain this isn’t it for The strokes. I rate this 5/5, 20/20, 100/100 etc.