Sunday 29 November 2009

The Strokes - Is This It (Review: Dan)

What do you get when you cross Franz Ferdinand with The Killers?
The Strokes.

I've listened to Is This It a few times now and I like it a lot. It's a really great indie record, and you can tell that it is a major influence on indie music of today. You can hear The Strokes in almost any indie track on the radio right now, so I suppose it comes as no surprise that Is This It was such a success.

In terms of the content of the album, it has some brilliant and catchy riffs, which I'm sure have been stolen by The Killers. I really like The Killers by the way.
Matt was right also by saying that I'd recognise a few of the tracks. Obviously Last Nite is the biggest indie song of all time. And rightly so, it's great. My other favourite tracks are Barely Legal and The Modern Age. Singer Julian Casablancas reminds me a lot of Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos. There doesn't seem to be too much to his singing, it just works I guess.

Looking at my notes for this album I have two bullet points:
  • Good
  • Sounds like Killers + Franz Ferdinand
This hasn't given me much to work with. At the end of the day, The Strokes have made a really good album which I'd say has been used as a mould for successful indie bands of today. However, I think it lacks lasting appeal, and there are some tracks that would be great at a party and everyone would love it, go home, listen to the album and then put it back on the shelf until the next time Last Nite comes on. 4/5

Sorry it's short.

Dan

Edit: I just logged into Last.fm and Franz Ferdinand are now on my recommended artists, similar to The Strokes and Editors.

3 comments:

  1. This album came out three years before Franz Ferdinand's and the Killers' debut albums.

    Might as well review a Joy Divison album and claim that they sound like "early Interpol."

    This is a wretched review. If you had written this in 2001 we might have had something.

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  2. I never said they were copying. I can't remember what I've written and I can't be bothered to re-read but I believe the point I was trying to get across was that they have clearly been a huge inspiration to more recent bands.

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  3. I'll agree with you on one thing though - it is a wretched review.

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