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Album Review
by Isus Anarkhos
20-8-2001
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| The Strokes |
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The Strokes: 'Is This It'
(Rough Trade)
Young Americans revisit urban jungle of somebody else's teenagehood for the next generation
Has the world gone mad? Let's specify it: has the Brit-media gone bonkers? The reason for asking is all the praise for The Strokes, an American band that is as common as a soap opera. And yet, for the past quarter of a year they've been hailed as the 'Second coming' (reprise)... The fact is that industry thrives on recycling old values for new generation that is reported on by uniformed and ignorant media.
That's where The Stokes fit in perfectly and it provides an explanation why this average band is the great white hype. If you ever listened to the music of the past - The Stooges come to mind as a good starting point - then you've been there, seen it and ripped the T-shirt. The Strokes members are music fans who simply bow to their heroes and pay homage after homage. And, get all the praise in the process and even, just on account of being so complimented, get promoted to the main stage of Reading Festi coz the Tent-one they were assigned to wouldn't hold all the interested.
The Strokes are as sincere as Oasis, faking somebody else's emotions, thoughts and riffs for the kids who never heard anything before, pre-Nirvana in their case. Which leads nicely to an anecdote about Kurt Cobain: when young Kurt was rebelling he heard of punk-rock in Britain but had no possibility to listen to it. So, he imagined what it would sound like but got disappointed when he finally had his ears filled by it.
That's the general feeling this album evokes, the king's new designer clothes. No need to name-check any songs, they all are uniformly unimpressive. It is like 'rebellion-for-tweenagers'...
'Is This It' is an appropriate title and the answer is - yes, unfortunately, in your case.
3/10
Isus Anarkhos
20-8-2001
The Strokes' 'Is This It' is released August 27 on Rough Trade
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