Is This It
Encyclopedia
Is This It is the debut studio album
by American indie rock
band The Strokes
. Recorded at Transporterraum in New York City with producer
Gordon Raphael
, after meeting at an early show at Luna Lounge, a former venue on the Lower East Side in NYC, the album was first released on July 30, 2001 in Australia, with RCA Records
as the primary label. The record entered the UK Albums Chart
at number two and peaked at number 33 on the U.S. Billboard 200
, going on to achieve platinum status in several markets. "Hard to Explain
", "Last Nite
", and "Someday
" were released as singles
.
For the album, The Strokes strived to capture a simple rock
sound that was not significantly enhanced in the studio. Building on the work of their 2001 debut EP
, The Modern Age
, the band members molded compositions largely through live takes during the recording sessions, while songwriter Julian Casablancas
continued to detail the lives and relationships of urban youth. Following the completion of Is This It, The Strokes embarked on a promotional world tour before its release. The album's cover photograph courted controversy for being too sexually explicit and was replaced for the U.S. market. The American track listing was also amended in light of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Promoted by the music press for a melodic pop
-influenced sound, The Strokes garnered critical acclaim and commercial attention. Is This It was praised for its charisma and rhythm, which often referenced the works of 1970s garage rock
bands. The record is considered crucial in the development of other alternative bands and of the post-millennial music industry. It has featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 2000s and of all time.
, 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, [
'
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 EP titled The Modern Age. Music press reaction was very positive and The Strokes embarked on a sold-out UK tour, followed by U.S. 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.
, who had produced recordings for alternative rock group Pixies. Although a rapport developed between the two parties, the band remained unhappy at the results of preliminary sessions which sounded "too clean" and "too pretentious"; the three songs recorded with Norton were scrapped. 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, both parties organized a listening session with the musical material Hammond and Casablancas had brought to show the tone and energy they liked. One of the prerequisites mentioned at the meeting was to take what was happening in music at the time, and go in a completely different direction. 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. The band usually recorded songs only once, based on Casablancas's preference for "raw efficiency". RAT
effects pedals and overdriving amplifier
s 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 off 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. 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. 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.
Following The Strokes' June 20 show in Glasgow, Moretti suffered an awkward fall and was hospitalized with a broken hand. Two of the last five UK gigs were canceled and a friend of the group, Matt Romano, flew to England to replace the injured drummer in the remaining concerts. In a press release, Gentles explained, "They will only carry on if they feel that they are 100% after rehearsing with Matt, as they wouldn't offer anything less to their fans." With Romano as a substitute, the band managed to satisfy the outstanding commitments. Live recorded versions of "Hard To Explain", its B-side "New York City Cops", and "Last Nite" from The Modern Age EP aired on UK music show Top of the Pops
on June 29, 2001. The Strokes headlined the T in the Park
festival in Scotland on July 7 after alternative rock group Weezer
pulled out. A large part of the month of July was spent performing in cities in the West Coasts of America and Canada.
Is This It was released in Australia on July 30, 2001 to capitalize on The Strokes' recent tour of the country. The record was streamed on Australian websites by the band's distributor BMG and remained available for listening even after the CD release. Geoff Travis
, head of The Strokes' UK label Rough Trade, commented that the Australian continent had "special dispensation" and that an export ban was put in place to ensure no interferences with release plans in the rest of the world. The Japanese release date of August 22 was timed to occur after two one-off shows by the band at the Summer Sonic Festival
, while the UK release of August 27 coincided with the Reading and Leeds Festivals
. The September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City postponed the group's CMJ Music Marathon
performance, and shifted RCA's U.S. release of Is This It from September 25 to October 9. A newly recorded song, "When It Started
", replaced "New York City Cops" on the CD version of the album after The Strokes witnessed the "valiant response" of the city's police department during the tragedy. The vinyl release retained the original track list.
of Is This It is by Colin Lane and features a photograph of a woman's nude bottom and hip, with a leather-gloved hand suggestively resting on it. The model was later revealed to be 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 daring works of Helmut Newton
and Guy Bordin in its design. Scott concludes, "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's controversial nature, they stocked the album without amendment.
The group deliberately left out the grammatically correct question mark from the album title because aesthetically, "it did not look right". The booklet insert contains stylized separate portraits of The Strokes, Raphael, Gentles, and Bowersock, all photographed by Lane. For the American market and the October 2001 release, the cover art of Is This It was changed to a microscopic close-up of particle collisions
. RCA product manager Dave Gottlieb commented that "it was straight up a band decision", while Gentles indicated that Casablancas had wanted it to appear globally. According to the band's manager, the frontman phoned him before the Japan and Europe release and said, "I found something even cooler than the a ... picture." At the time, the Lane photograph was already at the presses and was included in the July and August 2001 versions. The Strokes' 2003 biography mentions the fear of objections from America's conservative retail industry and right-wing lobby as reasons for the artwork's alteration.
. Discussing its risqué nature, Moretti has stated, "It should be taken the way you interpret it. The lyrics mean different things to different people." "Alone, Together" continues the sexual theme by dropping hints about cunnilingus
, while the yelp at the start of "New York City Cops" was created as a pastiche of rock band Aerosmith
. During the studio sessions, Casablancas introduced tracks with comic lines and some quips were used when the album was mixed.
drum line
, a recurring feature in the rest of the record. Containing one of the slowest tempo
s, "Is This It" is The Strokes' attempt at a ballad
. "The Modern Age" follows and includes a prominent guitar riff
accompanied by a complementary drum line. Its staccato
verse is followed by an upbeat, singalong chorus and a technically difficult 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.
charting continuously from its release in August to the end of the year. In the U.S., Is This It entered the Billboard 200 at number 74 after selling 16,000 units in the first week. 20,000 copies were shipped in America per week from October 2001 to January 2002, when a performance by The Strokes on nationwide TV show Saturday Night Live
caused a temporary rise in sales. A 60% increase allowed the album to reach a peak of number 33 on the Billboard 200 from its previous high of 63.
Is This It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America
in February 2002 for shipments of 500,000 copies in the U.S., and by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
in April for 50,000 units in Canada. In 2002, the album attained platinum status in the UK and in Australia for sales of 500,000 and 70,000 copies respectively. The av erage U.S. weekly sales were 7,000 by October 2002, when the reissue of the album with a bonus DVD caused an increase. By October 2003, the record had spent 58 weeks on the Billboard 200 since its release two years earlier, selling 900,000 copies in America; two million copies were sold worldwide. Is This It was certified platinum in Canada in 2004 after 100,000 units were shipped there. By the start of 2006, the album had sold over 600,000 copies in UK and over one million units in the U.S.
reports a normalized
rating of 90%, based on 25 critical reviews. Joe Levy of Rolling Stone
explained that the record is "the stuff of which legends are made", and summed it up as "more joyful and intense than anything else I've heard this year". Robert Christgau
, writing in The Village Voice
, described The Strokes as "a great groove band", and noted that "the beats implode, clashing/resolving with punky brevity and gnarly faux simplicity". In a perfect 10 review, NME
reviewer John Robinson indicated that Is This It was one of the best debut LPs by a guitar band during the past 20 years. In contrast, Jon Monks of Stylus
commented that its shallowness prevents it from ever being called a "classic". In his favorable A– review, David Browne
of Entertainment Weekly
conceded that he did not know whether The Strokes would have a long term impact, but noted that, at the time, the record "just feels right, and sometimes that's enough".
Mark Lepage of Blender
claimed that Is This It is similar to the works of 1970s bands The Velvet Underground, Television
and The Feelies
. Pitchfork Media
's Ryan Schreiber suggested that, while the work of The Velvet Underground is an obvious inspiration for The Strokes, the band's only similarity to the other groups is the confidence with which they perform. Allmusic's Heather Phares concluded, "Granted, their high-fashion appeal and faultless influences ... have 'critics' darlings' written all over them. But like the similarly lauded Elastica
and Supergrass
before them, the Strokes don't rehash the sounds that inspire them—they remake them in their own image."
Is This It was named the best album of 2001 by Billboard
, CMJ, Entertainment Weekly, NME, Playlouder
, and Time
. Magnet
and The New Yorker
included it in their respective unnumbered shortlists of the best records issued that year. It figured highly in other end-of-year best album lists: at number two by The Herald
, at number three by Mojo
, at number five by The New York Times
, at number eight by Rolling Stone and by USA Today
, and at number nine by The Boston Phoenix. The record featured at number two behind Bob Dylan
's Love and Theft in The Village Voices 2001 Pazz & Jop
critics' poll, which aggregated the votes of 621 prominent reviewers. In 2002, Is This It was named Best Album at the NME Awards
and Best International Album at the Meteor Music Awards
. It was nominated in the latter category at the Brit Awards
, where The Strokes won Best International Newcomer and received a nomination in the Best International Group category. The same year, the quintet won Band Of The Year and Best New Act at the NME Awards and was nominated in the latter category at the MTV Europe Music Awards
.
considers the release of Is This It a "world-changing moment" and notes that its impact was "immediate and dramatic" on both music and attire. BBC Radio 1
's Zane Lowe
suggests that the album moved popular opinion from DJs and pop music to "skinny jeans
and guitars", "the template for rock 'n' roll in the modern day". Tam Gunn of FACT agrees and explains that it "caused a sea change" in mainstream music in the U.S. and the UK, while Anthony Miccio of Stylus points out that The Strokes' success created the commercial context for "other new-wavers" to flourish. Rolling Stone writes that Is This It inspired "a ragged revolt" in Britain, led by The Libertines
and Arctic Monkeys
, and continued its influence in the U.S. on the success of bands like Kings of Leon
. The Observer shares a similar view and concludes that "a fine brood of heirs", like The Libertines and Franz Ferdinand
, would not have existed and been successful if The Strokes had not reinvigorated "rock's obsession with having a good time". Jared Followill of Kings of Leon notes that the album was one of the main reasons that he wanted to get into a band; he states, "The title track was one of the first bassline
s I learned ... I was just 15 at the time."
Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald
argues that, although Is This It provided substantial musical influence, its biggest success was in revamping the music industry and making A&R delegates scout and promote alternative bands. Gunn links the success of alternative music in British charts throughout the 2000s to the album, but notes that "the copyists" could never match the attention to detail and heartfelt emotion of The Strokes. Mulholland adds that even the pop stars of that decade who rediscovered disco
, electro, and synthpop
owe a debt to the record, because its commercial success "made every forgotten art-pop experiment of the late 70s and early 80s instantly hip and ripe for reinvention". Hamish MacBain of NME writes that "the western world has moved on, and is now swinging to the tune of Is This It", while Pitchfork Media's Joe Colly suggests that "you only capture this kind of a lightning in a bottle once". Gunn concludes that, while the status of the album as the 2000s' most influential guitar record may be "a double-edged sword" because of poor quality copyists, its status as the decade's best pop album should not be in doubt.
placed it at number 100 in its list of the 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005, while Stylus included it at number four in its list of the Top 50 Albums of 2000–2005. In 2006, Is This It was ranked at number 48 by The Observer in the publication's list of The 50 Albums That Changed Music, while Mojo featured it at number 33 in its list of 100 Modern Classics, 1993–2006. In 2007, Q
included the record at number 21 in its editorial staff list of the 21 Albums That Changed Music. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly ranked it at number 34 in its list of the 100 Best Albums, 1983–2008.
In 2009, Is This It was ranked as the best record of the 2000s by NME, ahead of The Libertines' Up the Bracket
, and at number two by Rolling Stone, behind Radiohead
's Kid A
, in their respective lists decided by the publications' staff and music industry members. FACT placed it at number two behind Burial
's Untrue
in its editorial list of the 100 Best: Albums of the Decade, while Billboard featured it at number three in its critics' picks of the 20 Best Albums of the 2000s. The same year, The Observer included Is This It at number four in its Albums of the Decade list, while Uncut
ranked it at number five in its list of The 150 Greatest Albums Of The 21st Century. The Times
placed it at number six in its list of The 100 Best Pop Albums of the Noughties, while Pitchfork Media featured it at number seven in its staff list of The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s. In 2010, Stylus ranked Is This It at number six in its list of the Top Albums of the previous decade. The record is included in both The Guardians "1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die" and the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
.
The Strokes
Production
Design
Singles
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band The Strokes
The Strokes
The Strokes are an American indie rock band formed in 1999 in New York City. Consisting of Julian Casablancas , Nick Valensi , Albert Hammond, Jr. , Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti ....
. Recorded at Transporterraum in New York City with producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Gordon Raphael
Gordon Raphael
Gordon Raphael is a record producer and musician from Seattle, Washington and New York, currently working in San Antonio, Texas.Gordon Raphael is most widely known for his work with The Strokes, whom he met while attending one of their very first shows at Luna Lounge on the Lower East Side, New...
, after meeting at an early show at Luna Lounge, a former venue on the Lower East Side in NYC, the album was first released on July 30, 2001 in Australia, with RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
as the primary label. The record entered the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
at number two and peaked at number 33 on the U.S. Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, going on to achieve platinum status in several markets. "Hard to Explain
Hard to Explain
"Hard to Explain" is the first single from New York garage rock band The Strokes . It was released first in the UK and was later released in the U.S. with different album artwork. "Hard to Explain" is the first single from New York garage rock band The Strokes (their only previously released...
", "Last Nite
Last Nite
"Last Nite" was covered in 2003 by Vitamin C. The song was produced by Dave Derby, Michael Kotch, and Fred Maher. The single features a sample from Blondie's "Heart of Glass". After Elektra Records dropped Vitamin C when her second album, More, did not sell as expected, she signed to V2 Records in...
", and "Someday
Someday (The Strokes song)
"Someday" is a song by the indie rock band The Strokes, and the third single from Is This It. It peaked at #17 on the U.S. Alternative Songs chart and at #27 on the U.K...
" were released as singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
.
For the album, The Strokes strived to capture a simple rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
sound that was not significantly enhanced in the studio. Building on the work of their 2001 debut EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, The Modern Age
The Modern Age
The Modern Age is the debut EP by American indie rock band The Strokes. It was released on January 29, 2001 in the United Kingdom and May 22, 2001 in the United States, sparking a bidding war among record labels; the largest for a rock band in years....
, the band members molded compositions largely through live takes during the recording sessions, while songwriter Julian Casablancas
Julian Casablancas
Julian Fernando Casablancas is an American singer-songwriter and musician of The Strokes. Casablancas pursued a solo career during The Strokes' hiatus, releasing the album Phrazes for the Young on November 3, 2009....
continued to detail the lives and relationships of urban youth. Following the completion of Is This It, The Strokes embarked on a promotional world tour before its release. The album's cover photograph courted controversy for being too sexually explicit and was replaced for the U.S. market. The American track listing was also amended in light of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Promoted by the music press for a melodic pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
-influenced sound, The Strokes garnered critical acclaim and commercial attention. Is This It was praised for its charisma and rhythm, which often referenced the works of 1970s garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
bands. The record is considered crucial in the development of other alternative bands and of the post-millennial music industry. It has featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 2000s and of all time.
Origins
In 1997, The Strokes consisted of singer Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, bassist Nikolai FraitureNikolai Fraiture
Nikolai Philippe Fraiture is the bass player for the American indie rock band, The Strokes. Fraiture grew up in New York City with his Russian mother and French father and speaks fluent French. Nikolai has an older brother named Pierre and a younger sister named Elizabeth...
, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti
Fabrizio Moretti
Fabrizio Moretti is the drummer of the American indie rock band, The Strokes. Fabrizio’s side project with Rodrigo Amarante of Los Hermanos and Binki Shapiro, entitled Little Joy debuted on Rough Trade Records...
. Casablancas's stepfather and Moretti's and Fraiture's older brothers introduced the quartet to the music of reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
artist Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
, protopunk
Protopunk
Protopunk is a term used retrospectively to describe a number of musicians who were important precursors of punk rock in the late 1960s to mid-1970s, or who have been cited by early punk musicians as influential...
group The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
, and alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band's original line-up featured Perry Farrell , Dave Navarro , Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins . After breaking up in 1991, Jane's Addiction briefly reunited in 1997 and again in 2001, both times...
. Discussing the formative stages of the group, Moretti noted, "Our music was, like, [
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
'
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
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
caught the attention of Ryan Gentles
Ryan Gentles
Ryan Michael Gentles is the manager of the New York City-based band, The Strokes and the Chief Executive Officer of Wiz Kid Management. Before meeting the Strokes, he was the vocalist and guitarist in two bands, Timmsie's First Time, which broke up in 1995 and The Selzers, which broke up in 2000...
, a talent booker at New York City's Mercury Lounge
Mercury Lounge
The Mercury Lounge is a club/music venue, in the Lower East Side section, of New York City. The structure, at 217 East Houston Street, housed the servants to the Astor Mansion, connected to it by an underground labyrinth of tunnels...
. 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
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
was impressed by the songs and released them as a January 2001 EP titled The Modern Age. Music press reaction was very positive and The Strokes embarked on a sold-out UK tour, followed by U.S. support slots for alternative rock groups Doves and Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band originating from Dayton, Ohio. Beginning with the band's formation in 1983, it made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard...
. 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 NortonGil Norton
Gil Norton is a British record producer known for his work with such bands as Pixies, Echo & the Bunnymen, Foo Fighters, Tribe, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Feeder, The Distillers, Maxïmo Park, Counting Crows, Terrorvision, The Triffids, Del Amitri, James, The Feelers, The Beekeepers,...
, who had produced recordings for alternative rock group Pixies. Although a rapport developed between the two parties, the band remained unhappy at the results of preliminary sessions which sounded "too clean" and "too pretentious"; the three songs recorded with Norton were scrapped. Like The Modern Age, Is This It was eventually recorded with Gordon Raphael at Transporterraum in Manhattan's East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
in New York City. The studio is located in a basement with poor lighting, but despite its poor infrastructure, it includes modern Pro Tools
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
Digital Audio Workstation
Digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
hardware. The Strokes liked Raphael's lack of ego and formed a good collaborative relationship with the producer.
Before recording started, both parties organized a listening session with the musical material Hammond and Casablancas had brought to show the tone and energy they liked. One of the prerequisites mentioned at the meeting was to take what was happening in music at the time, and go in a completely different direction. 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
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
, 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
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
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. The band usually recorded songs only once, based on Casablancas's preference for "raw efficiency". RAT
Pro Co Rat
The Pro Co "The RAT" is a guitar effects pedal produced by Pro Co Sound. The original RAT was developed in the basement of Pro Co's Kalamazoo, Michigan facility in 1978...
effects pedals and overdriving amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
s 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
Reverse echo
Reverse echo or reverb, also known as backwards echo, is a sound effect created as the result of recording an echo or delayed signal of an audio recording played backwards...
were widely used. Throughout the process, Raphael improvised off 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
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
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
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
, the miking scheme for the drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
included only three microphones: one above it, one for the bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
, and one in the corner of the studio. 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
Fender
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, commonly referred to as simply Fender, of Scottsdale, Arizona is a manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers, such as solid-body electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster...
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
Equalization
Equalization, is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal. The most well known use of equalization is in sound recording and reproduction but there are many other applications in electronics and telecommunications. The circuit or equipment used...
. Valensi commented that guitar teacher and mentor Bowersock was invaluable because he was articulating things to the producer that the group could not. While the rest of The Strokes played to a click track
Click track
A click track is a series of audio cues used to synchronize sound recordings, sometimes for synchronization to a moving image. The click track originated in early sound movies, where marks were made on the film itself to indicate exact timings for musicians to accompany the film...
, Casablancas sang through a small Peavey
Peavey Electronics
Peavey Electronics Corporation is one of the largest audio equipment manufacturers in the world, headquartered in Meridian, Mississippi in the United States.- History :...
practice amp to retain a sense of low fidelity
Low fidelity
Low fidelity or lo-fi describes a sound recording which contains technical flaws such as distortion, hum, or background noise, or limited frequency response...
on the album. Raphael mixed
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
as he went along to maintain control of the record until the final mastering
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
stage; the producer aimed to show The Strokes a final product as soon as the band finished performing a track.
Promotion and release
Following the album's completion, The Strokes performed at Philadelphia music venues on every Wednesday of May 2001. The band revealed the track listing of Is This It on May 15. A June headlining tour of the UK and Ireland was also confirmed, and almost immediately after the announcement, some venues sold out. "Hard to Explain" was named as the album's first single with a release date of June 25 to coincide with the tour. At the time, Moretti stated, "In Britain, people are much more responsive ... I'm so psyched to be going back, every show we played people were enjoying it. There's a lot of people here in America who think we've had it too easy, but they have never really heard the music."Following The Strokes' June 20 show in Glasgow, Moretti suffered an awkward fall and was hospitalized with a broken hand. Two of the last five UK gigs were canceled and a friend of the group, Matt Romano, flew to England to replace the injured drummer in the remaining concerts. In a press release, Gentles explained, "They will only carry on if they feel that they are 100% after rehearsing with Matt, as they wouldn't offer anything less to their fans." With Romano as a substitute, the band managed to satisfy the outstanding commitments. Live recorded versions of "Hard To Explain", its B-side "New York City Cops", and "Last Nite" from The Modern Age EP aired on UK music show Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
on June 29, 2001. The Strokes headlined the T in the Park
T in the Park
T in the Park is a major British music festival that has been held annually since 1994. It is named after its main sponsor, the brewing company Tennents. It was originally held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire but since 1997 has been held at a disused airfield in Balado, Kinross-shire...
festival in Scotland on July 7 after alternative rock group Weezer
Weezer
Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...
pulled out. A large part of the month of July was spent performing in cities in the West Coasts of America and Canada.
Is This It was released in Australia on July 30, 2001 to capitalize on The Strokes' recent tour of the country. The record was streamed on Australian websites by the band's distributor BMG and remained available for listening even after the CD release. Geoff Travis
Geoff Travis
Geoff Travis is the founder of both Rough Trade Records and the Rough Trade chain of record shops. A former drama teacher and owner of a punk record shop, Travis founded the Rough Trade label in 1978.-Biography:...
, head of The Strokes' UK label Rough Trade, commented that the Australian continent had "special dispensation" and that an export ban was put in place to ensure no interferences with release plans in the rest of the world. The Japanese release date of August 22 was timed to occur after two one-off shows by the band at the Summer Sonic Festival
Summer Sonic Festival
The Summer Sonic Festival is an annual two or three-days rock festival held at the same time in Osaka and Chiba. The majority of the bands playing in Osaka the first day go to Chiba the following day and vice versa....
, while the UK release of August 27 coincided with the Reading and Leeds Festivals
Reading and Leeds Festivals
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm...
. The September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City postponed the group's CMJ Music Marathon
CMJ Music Marathon
CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival is put on by CMJ Network. CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival 2010 is scheduled for October 19–23 and will be headquartered at New York University and other downtown NYC venues.- History :...
performance, and shifted RCA's U.S. release of Is This It from September 25 to October 9. A newly recorded song, "When It Started
When It Started
"When It Started" is a song by the garage rock band The Strokes. It appears on Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man. Due to the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City the song replaced "New York City Cops" on the US version of the album Is This It after The Strokes witnessed the "valiant...
", replaced "New York City Cops" on the CD version of the album after The Strokes witnessed the "valiant response" of the city's police department during the tragedy. The vinyl release retained the original track list.
Packaging
The July and August 2001 cover artCover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
of Is This It is by Colin Lane and features a photograph of a woman's nude bottom and hip, with a leather-gloved hand suggestively resting on it. The model was later revealed to be 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 daring works of Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."-Early life:Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara...
and Guy Bordin in its design. Scott concludes, "It’s either a stylish or graphically strong cover or a sexist Smell the Glove
Smell the Glove
Smell the Glove is the name of a fictional album by the mock heavy-metal band Spinal Tap in the movie This Is Spinal Tap. It was released by Polymer Records .-Cover sleeve art:...
travesty." Although British retail chains HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
and Woolworths
Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books...
objected to the photograph's controversial nature, they stocked the album without amendment.
The group deliberately left out the grammatically correct question mark from the album title because aesthetically, "it did not look right". The booklet insert contains stylized separate portraits of The Strokes, Raphael, Gentles, and Bowersock, all photographed by Lane. For the American market and the October 2001 release, the cover art of Is This It was changed to a microscopic close-up of particle collisions
Particle accelerator
A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams. An ordinary CRT television set is a simple form of accelerator. There are two basic types: electrostatic and oscillating field accelerators.In...
. RCA product manager Dave Gottlieb commented that "it was straight up a band decision", while Gentles indicated that Casablancas had wanted it to appear globally. According to the band's manager, the frontman phoned him before the Japan and Europe release and said, "I found something even cooler than the a ... picture." At the time, the Lane photograph was already at the presses and was included in the July and August 2001 versions. The Strokes' 2003 biography mentions the fear of objections from America's conservative retail industry and right-wing lobby as reasons for the artwork's alteration.
Lyrics
Casablancas's writing observes life in New York City and the relationships formed in such a metropolis. Exemplifying this theme, "The Modern Age" is a rant about the oddness of modern life. "Barely Legal" concerns the subject matter of a girl who has just arrived at the age of consentAge of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
. Discussing its risqué nature, Moretti has stated, "It should be taken the way you interpret it. The lyrics mean different things to different people." "Alone, Together" continues the sexual theme by dropping hints about cunnilingus
Cunnilingus
Cunnilingus is an oral sex act performed on a female. It involves the use by a sex partner of the mouth, lips and tongue to stimulate the female's clitoris, vulva, or vagina...
, while the yelp at the start of "New York City Cops" was created as a pastiche of rock band Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
. During the studio sessions, Casablancas introduced tracks with comic lines and some quips were used when the album was mixed.
Music
All songs on Is This It were mixed using 11 audio tracks or less. 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, metronomicMetronome
A metronome is any device that produces regular, metrical ticks — settable in beats per minute. These ticks represent a fixed, regular aural pulse; some metronomes also include synchronized visual motion...
drum line
Drum line
Drum Line commonly refers to:* Drum lines, An anti shark precautionary measure* Drumline, A formation for a section of percussion instruments* Drumline , A 2002 motion film...
, a recurring feature in the rest of the record. Containing one of the slowest tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
s, "Is This It" is The Strokes' attempt at a ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
. "The Modern Age" follows and includes a prominent guitar riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
accompanied by a complementary drum line. Its staccato
Staccato
Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...
verse is followed by an upbeat, singalong chorus and a technically difficult guitar solo
Guitar solo
In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...
. 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
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
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
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
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
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
. "Last Nite" is also a guitar-driven song, but leans towards pop music influences. At its core, there are reggae-inspired rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
lines played by Hammond, and studio noise
White noise
White noise is a random signal with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency...
effects. The rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
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
Pickup (music technology)
A pickup device is a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations, usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar, Chapman Stick, or electric violin, and converts them to an electrical signal that is amplified, recorded, or broadcast.-...
of his Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
guitar.
Commercial
Is This It was a commercial success and entered the UK Albums Chart at number two after first week sales of 48,393 copies. The record was listed at number 71 on the UK Albums Chart for 2001 and was certified gold by the British Phonographic IndustryBritish Phonographic Industry
The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies...
charting continuously from its release in August to the end of the year. In the U.S., Is This It entered the Billboard 200 at number 74 after selling 16,000 units in the first week. 20,000 copies were shipped in America per week from October 2001 to January 2002, when a performance by The Strokes on nationwide TV show Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
caused a temporary rise in sales. A 60% increase allowed the album to reach a peak of number 33 on the Billboard 200 from its previous high of 63.
Is This It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in February 2002 for shipments of 500,000 copies in the U.S., and by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
Canadian Recording Industry Association
Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada...
in April for 50,000 units in Canada. In 2002, the album attained platinum status in the UK and in Australia for sales of 500,000 and 70,000 copies respectively. The av erage U.S. weekly sales were 7,000 by October 2002, when the reissue of the album with a bonus DVD caused an increase. By October 2003, the record had spent 58 weeks on the Billboard 200 since its release two years earlier, selling 900,000 copies in America; two million copies were sold worldwide. Is This It was certified platinum in Canada in 2004 after 100,000 units were shipped there. By the start of 2006, the album had sold over 600,000 copies in UK and over one million units in the U.S.
Critical
Media response to Is This It was extremely favorable; aggregating website MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reports a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating of 90%, based on 25 critical reviews. Joe Levy of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
explained that the record is "the stuff of which legends are made", and summed it up as "more joyful and intense than anything else I've heard this year". Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
, writing in The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, described The Strokes as "a great groove band", and noted that "the beats implode, clashing/resolving with punky brevity and gnarly faux simplicity". In a perfect 10 review, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
reviewer John Robinson indicated that Is This It was one of the best debut LPs by a guitar band during the past 20 years. In contrast, Jon Monks of Stylus
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
commented that its shallowness prevents it from ever being called a "classic". In his favorable A– review, David Browne
David Browne
David Browne is an American journalist and author. He was the resident music critic at Entertainment Weekly between 1990 and 2006. He was an editor at Music & Sound Output magazine and a music critic at the New York Daily News before EW...
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
conceded that he did not know whether The Strokes would have a long term impact, but noted that, at the time, the record "just feels right, and sometimes that's enough".
Mark Lepage of Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
claimed that Is This It is similar to the works of 1970s bands The Velvet Underground, Television
Television (band)
Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...
and The Feelies
The Feelies
The Feelies are a rock band from Haledon, New Jersey. They formed in 1976 and disbanded in 1992 having released four albums. The band reunited in 2008 and most recently released an album in 2011....
. Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Ryan Schreiber suggested that, while the work of The Velvet Underground is an obvious inspiration for The Strokes, the band's only similarity to the other groups is the confidence with which they perform. Allmusic's Heather Phares concluded, "Granted, their high-fashion appeal and faultless influences ... have 'critics' darlings' written all over them. But like the similarly lauded Elastica
Elastica
Elastica were an English alternative rock band that played punk rock-influenced music. They were best known for their 1995 album Elastica, which produced singles that charted in the US and the UK.-History:...
and Supergrass
Supergrass
Supergrass was an English alternative rock band from Oxford. The band consisted of brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes , Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey ....
before them, the Strokes don't rehash the sounds that inspire them—they remake them in their own image."
Is This It was named the best album of 2001 by Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, CMJ, Entertainment Weekly, NME, Playlouder
PlayLouder
Playlouder is a digital music and media company. It is a music site which provides news, reviews, and other related content. It also claims to be the world's first Music Service Provider or MSP — a broadband, Internet Service Provider that bundles access to music content with broadband...
, and Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
. Magnet
Magnet (magazine)
Magnet is a music magazine which generally focuses on alternative, independent, or out-of-the-mainstream bands.-History:The magazine is published four times a year, and is independently owned and edited by Eric T. Miller. Music magazines with a similar focus in the 1990s era included Option,...
and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
included it in their respective unnumbered shortlists of the best records issued that year. It figured highly in other end-of-year best album lists: at number two by The Herald
The Herald (Glasgow)
The Herald is a broadsheet newspaper published Monday to Saturday in Glasgow, and available throughout Scotland. As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 47,226, giving it a lead over Scotland's other 'quality' national daily, The Scotsman, published in Edinburgh.The 1889 to 1906 editions...
, at number three by Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, at number five by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, at number eight by Rolling Stone and by USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, and at number nine by The Boston Phoenix. The record featured at number two behind Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Love and Theft in The Village Voices 2001 Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
critics' poll, which aggregated the votes of 621 prominent reviewers. In 2002, Is This It was named Best Album at the NME Awards
NME Awards
The NME Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine, NME .The first awards show was held in 1953 as the NME Poll Winners Concerts, shortly after the founding of the magazine....
and Best International Album at the Meteor Music Awards
Meteor Music Awards
The Meteor Ireland Music Awards are a group of music awards in Ireland...
. It was nominated in the latter category at the Brit Awards
Brit Awards
The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...
, where The Strokes won Best International Newcomer and received a nomination in the Best International Group category. The same year, the quintet won Band Of The Year and Best New Act at the NME Awards and was nominated in the latter category at the MTV Europe Music Awards
MTV Europe Music Awards
The MTV Europe Music Awards were established in 1994 by MTV Networks Europe to celebrate the most popular music videos in Europe. Originally beginning as an alternative to the American MTV Video Music Awards, the MTV Europe Music Awards is today a popular celebration of what MTV viewers consider...
.
Influence
Gary Mulholland of The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
considers the release of Is This It a "world-changing moment" and notes that its impact was "immediate and dramatic" on both music and attire. BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
's Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe
Zane Lowe also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland, where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England...
suggests that the album moved popular opinion from DJs and pop music to "skinny jeans
Skinny jeans
Slim-fit pants or skinny jeans have a snug fit through the legs and end in a small leg opening that can be anywhere from 9" to 20" depending on size. Other names for this style include pegs, drainpipes, stovepipes, Asian tight-pants, cigarette pants, skinny pants,insolent pants or skinnies...
and guitars", "the template for rock 'n' roll in the modern day". Tam Gunn of FACT agrees and explains that it "caused a sea change" in mainstream music in the U.S. and the UK, while Anthony Miccio of Stylus points out that The Strokes' success created the commercial context for "other new-wavers" to flourish. Rolling Stone writes that Is This It inspired "a ragged revolt" in Britain, led by The Libertines
The Libertines
The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât and Pete Doherty . The band, centred on the song-writing partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall and Gary Powell for most of its recording career...
and Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock band. Formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield, the band currently consists of Alex Turner , Jamie Cook , Nick O'Malley and Matt Helders...
, and continued its influence in the U.S. on the success of bands like Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion, Oklahoma but formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Anthony Caleb Followill , Ivan Nathan Followill and Michael Jared Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion,...
. The Observer shares a similar view and concludes that "a fine brood of heirs", like The Libertines and Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand (band)
Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...
, would not have existed and been successful if The Strokes had not reinvigorated "rock's obsession with having a good time". Jared Followill of Kings of Leon notes that the album was one of the main reasons that he wanted to get into a band; he states, "The title track was one of the first bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
s I learned ... I was just 15 at the time."
Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
argues that, although Is This It provided substantial musical influence, its biggest success was in revamping the music industry and making A&R delegates scout and promote alternative bands. Gunn links the success of alternative music in British charts throughout the 2000s to the album, but notes that "the copyists" could never match the attention to detail and heartfelt emotion of The Strokes. Mulholland adds that even the pop stars of that decade who rediscovered disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, electro, and synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
owe a debt to the record, because its commercial success "made every forgotten art-pop experiment of the late 70s and early 80s instantly hip and ripe for reinvention". Hamish MacBain of NME writes that "the western world has moved on, and is now swinging to the tune of Is This It", while Pitchfork Media's Joe Colly suggests that "you only capture this kind of a lightning in a bottle once". Gunn concludes that, while the status of the album as the 2000s' most influential guitar record may be "a double-edged sword" because of poor quality copyists, its status as the decade's best pop album should not be in doubt.
Accolades
In 2003, Is This It was ranked at number seven in NMEs editorial staff list of the 100 Best Albums, while Rolling Stone included it at number 367 in its special issue of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2005, SpinSpin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
placed it at number 100 in its list of the 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005, while Stylus included it at number four in its list of the Top 50 Albums of 2000–2005. In 2006, Is This It was ranked at number 48 by The Observer in the publication's list of The 50 Albums That Changed Music, while Mojo featured it at number 33 in its list of 100 Modern Classics, 1993–2006. In 2007, Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
included the record at number 21 in its editorial staff list of the 21 Albums That Changed Music. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly ranked it at number 34 in its list of the 100 Best Albums, 1983–2008.
In 2009, Is This It was ranked as the best record of the 2000s by NME, ahead of The Libertines' Up the Bracket
Up the Bracket
Up the Bracket is the debut album by British rock band The Libertines, released in October 2002. It reached #35 in the UK Albums Chart.The album was re-released on 8 September 2003 with an additional track, "What a Waster" and DVD featuring the promotional videos for the singles: "Up the Bracket",...
, and at number two by Rolling Stone, behind Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's Kid A
Kid A
Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in October 2000 by the Parlophone label. A commercial success worldwide, Kid A went platinum in its first week of release in the United Kingdom. Despite the lack of an official single or music video as publicity, Kid A...
, in their respective lists decided by the publications' staff and music industry members. FACT placed it at number two behind Burial
Burial (musician)
Burial is the stage name of William Bevan, an electronic musician from London. His music contains elements of dubstep, 2-step garage, ambient and house music. His eponymous debut album was released in 2006 to critical acclaim...
's Untrue
Untrue
Untrue is the second album by the producer known as Burial. It was released on 5 November 2007 as a 13-track Digipack CD and a nine-track 2xLP from which some of the beatless pieces were edited. The album marked a development in Burial's sound; it employed pitch-shifted and time-stretched vocal...
in its editorial list of the 100 Best: Albums of the Decade, while Billboard featured it at number three in its critics' picks of the 20 Best Albums of the 2000s. The same year, The Observer included Is This It at number four in its Albums of the Decade list, while Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
ranked it at number five in its list of The 150 Greatest Albums Of The 21st Century. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
placed it at number six in its list of The 100 Best Pop Albums of the Noughties, while Pitchfork Media featured it at number seven in its staff list of The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s. In 2010, Stylus ranked Is This It at number six in its list of the Top Albums of the previous decade. The record is included in both The Guardians "1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die" and the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Track listing
All songs written by Julian CasablancasJulian Casablancas
Julian Fernando Casablancas is an American singer-songwriter and musician of The Strokes. Casablancas pursued a solo career during The Strokes' hiatus, releasing the album Phrazes for the Young on November 3, 2009....
.
- The U.S. CD version has "When It StartedWhen It Started"When It Started" is a song by the garage rock band The Strokes. It appears on Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man. Due to the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City the song replaced "New York City Cops" on the US version of the album Is This It after The Strokes witnessed the "valiant...
" (2:57) as track 9 instead of "New York City Cops". - The bonus DVD portion of the reissue contains the music videos for the album's three singles and two previously unreleased live performances of The Strokes on MTV2MTV2MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
.
Personnel
Those involved in the making of Is This It are:The Strokes
- Julian CasablancasJulian CasablancasJulian Fernando Casablancas is an American singer-songwriter and musician of The Strokes. Casablancas pursued a solo career during The Strokes' hiatus, releasing the album Phrazes for the Young on November 3, 2009....
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Nikolai FraitureNikolai FraitureNikolai Philippe Fraiture is the bass player for the American indie rock band, The Strokes. Fraiture grew up in New York City with his Russian mother and French father and speaks fluent French. Nikolai has an older brother named Pierre and a younger sister named Elizabeth...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Albert Hammond, Jr. – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Fabrizio MorettiFabrizio MorettiFabrizio Moretti is the drummer of the American indie rock band, The Strokes. Fabrizio’s side project with Rodrigo Amarante of Los Hermanos and Binki Shapiro, entitled Little Joy debuted on Rough Trade Records...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Nick Valensi – guitar
Production
- JP Bowersock – consultant
- Greg Calbi – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
- Gordon Raphael – producer, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
Design
- Colin Lane – photography, cover artCover artCover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
(non-U.S. and Canada) - European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) – cover art (U.S. and Canada)
Chart positions
Album| Chart (2001–2002) | Peak |
|---|---|
| Billboard 200 (U.S.) Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
33 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
2 |
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
5 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Flanders Flemish Region The Flemish Region is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Colloquially, it is usually simply referred to as Flanders, of which it is the institutional iteration within the context of the Belgian political system... ) |
47 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 23 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
19 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
28 |
| Netherlands Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
54 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
23 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
2 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
3 |
Singles
| Song | Peak | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Mod. Rock |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
AUS ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
|
| "Hard to Explain Hard to Explain "Hard to Explain" is the first single from New York garage rock band The Strokes . It was released first in the UK and was later released in the U.S. with different album artwork. "Hard to Explain" is the first single from New York garage rock band The Strokes (their only previously released... " |
27 | 16 | — |
| "Last Nite Last Nite "Last Nite" was covered in 2003 by Vitamin C. The song was produced by Dave Derby, Michael Kotch, and Fred Maher. The single features a sample from Blondie's "Heart of Glass". After Elektra Records dropped Vitamin C when her second album, More, did not sell as expected, she signed to V2 Records in... " |
5 | 14 | 47 |
| "Someday Someday (The Strokes song) "Someday" is a song by the indie rock band The Strokes, and the third single from Is This It. It peaked at #17 on the U.S. Alternative Songs chart and at #27 on the U.K... " |
17 | 27 | — |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.
External links
- Is This It at Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
- Is This It lyrics at MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
- Is This It critical reviews at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...