Why The Strokes Will Never Escape 'Is This It'

By Isabelle Parker

The Strokes-- Left to Right, Albert Hammond Jr, Nikolai Fraiture, Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi and Fabrizio Moretti (Photo from Moreau Lionel/EMPICS)

Is This It has long been the benchmark to which all Strokes material is compared to. Whether it's Room on Fire being dubbed as the debut's wearier sounding copy, or The New Abnormal being celebrated as a return to the LP's standard, Is This It is the shadow The Strokes just can't overcome.

In one way, it's a good thing; to have an album so great that it won't leave critics' minds no matter what else they listen to is certainly an achievement. But when the album you put hours upon hours of work and thought into instantly gets compared with something you did 20 years ago, it can feel more like a curse.

Released in 2001, Is This It sold 2.5 million copies and ranked number 2 on UK charts-- and upon listening to the dynamic guitar, alluring melodies and effortlessly cool lyrics, it's not hard to understand why. The album was followed in 2003 by Room on Fire, then First Impressions of Earth and Angles in 2005 and 2011. Room on Fire achieved success, and was, for the most part, considered to be an adequate follow up to Is This It. Still, listeners have long debated whether the second LP is better than the first, or merely a try-hard copy that will never live up to its predecessor's fame. First Impressions of Earth and Angles sunk even lower into the murky depths of comparison, with reviewers describing the albums as more forced feeling versions of Is This It.

Comedown Machine was released in 2013 and is often thought of as the low point of The Strokes' career. The softer tunes and falsetto singing left fans wondering where the creators of Is This It went and whether they'd be returning. The album was followed by a seven year dry spell which was broken only in 2020 with the release of The New Abnormal. The release of this LP struck hope into the hearts of fans, and was received much more warmly than its predecessor-- but still, the comparisons to Is This It did not end.

With this release, fans had more positive comparisons to make-- The New Abnormal was praised as a return to The Strokes' earlier sound. Even the more successful of The Strokes' albums cannot stand on their own; the judgement of a release is based on its similarity to Is This It. They are either like Is This It, and considered satisfactory, or unlike it, and considered inadequate.

The New Abnormal Album Cover

So why do listeners keep referring back to Is This It ? The most obvious reason would be that it's simply a good album. Its tracks are catchy, its guitar is thrilling, and it paints a picture of New York that was previously left untouched.

But there is a deeper motive behind the comparisons too. There is no doubt that at one point in time, you have heard a senior begin a nostalgic and often modern-day-youth berating story starting with "Back in my day..". It is in our nature to feel sentimental towards the past. We look at old times through rose coloured glasses, as the inconveniences of the time fade away and only the good memories remain.

Fans aren't reminiscing about The Strokes' music alone; they are mourning life at that time. They miss the carelessness of youth, the freedom of blasting music on a car ride at midnight, and the feeling they got the first time they listened to Last Nite or Hard to Explain. Perhaps because Is This It came out when rock was all but forgotten, punk was dwindling, and pop was taking over the music scene, the album is seen as ground-breaking and a masterpiece. Now with bands such as Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand helping to revive the indie rock movement, The Strokes are no longer considered revolutionary-- which is something they can't help.

The lyrics of Someday sum this up perfectly, and foreshadow the legacy their album would leave. The line "In many ways, they'll miss the good old days" conveys that The Strokes knew people would remember the time fondly, while "When we was young, oh man, did we have fun" elucidates that, even at the time of the song's release, members were feeling nostalgic about their own golden days.

While there's no doubt that some of The Strokes' songs and albums are better than others, listeners must understand that bands change, and the fact that fans are reflecting on the old days shows that they have too. Artists cannot be expected to remain true to their earliest sounds throughout their whole career, and The Strokes can't change the time they formed or how this affects the listener's experience.

The best thing to do is to listen to Is This It and Room On Fire and be sentimental about those times, but also play Comedown Machine and The New Abnormal and realise that they, too, will one day bring a tear of nostalgia to a fan's eye-- and perhaps set them on a rant about the new Strokes' album and how it will never live up to One Way Trigger or The Adults are Talking.

The Strokes (Photo by Leslie Lyons)