The time is 15:20 on Saturday the 30th of July 2016 and exactly 78 days, 15 hours and 20 minutes ago I suffered the traumatising experience of turning twenty years of age. Those of you who are more impassive towards the fears of aging may struggle to find the significance of this fact, for a hedonist like me though, it’s heartbreaking. For me, leaving my teenage years behind symbolises far more than a change of number; it represents entering adulthood, responsibilities and a step nearer to becoming a middle-aged housewife with 2.1 kids, struggling to pay the mortgage with a part-time job… in short, my greatest fears in life. Being a teenager gives you this amazing sense of invincibility and immortality. Being able to say “Fuck it, we may as well do it while we're young” is a phrase applicable to almost all opportunities that come your way and - sickeningly - when you're a teenager you really can do anything you want without truly having to pay for the consequences (well, not immediately anyway!).
As I sit contemplating this, I'm listening to an album which, in my eyes at least, captures this concept more than any other - The Strokes’ debut Is This It.
In the late 90s/early 00s, rock n roll had gone kaput for the foreseeable future. The temporary success of guitar bands such as Pulp, Blur and Oasis at the height of the britpop years in the 90s saw a glimmer of hope for what was around the corner for indie music; however, this hope went onto be vanquished with the disappointment of the much anticipated Be Here Now album by Oasis and also the rise in popularity of rave music which broke down the barriers between subcultures and appeared to have pushed guitar music aside for all eternity.
By the turn of the millennium though, five young lads from NYC with dirty fingernails and unkempt hair were working hard to produce a debut album that would go onto head a musical revolution and save rock n roll.
In what was their first proposal to the music industry, The Strokes’ debut demonstrates itself with a very specific sound; in their attempt at revival they resurrect the blueprint made for them by the very creators of archetypal rock n roll - The Velvet Underground. Not only do they share similar journalistic, gritty, lyrical content surrounding the sagas which plague New York City but Gordon Raphael's raw production also enables the album to sound rustic and retro as though the band had traveled back to the 60s and become contemporaries of The Velvet Underground whilst recording. This notion is particularly prevalent in tracks like New York City Cops where frontman Julian Casablancas’s ad lib replicates Lou Reed's in the song Temptation Inside Your Heart, evidently paying homage to their ultimate influence.
Like all good albums, Is This It makes us feel reminiscent for a time and place that we've never experienced; suddenly New York is presented as a land of opportunity, the place where “it's all 'appenin’”, right? From the beginning, The Strokes have always possessed that much sought after gang mentality that all bands strive for and all music fans crave to be a part of - an attribute which manifests itself most when you're in a club, bar or party and you hear those beginning chords of the album's greatest anthem, Last Nite. Its standard ABAB structure and 4/4 drumming style makes the song the most accessible pop-rock song on the album. The fact that the majority of people only know the first four words of the chorus is irrelevant because in that moment a collective group of people have their hands in the air and are united by the verve and lust for life prevailing in the music.
For its target audience, Is This It solicits the promise of indefinite years of recreation, promiscuity and general misspent youth to come. In my personal favourite song from the album The Modern Age, the narrator admits “I took too many varieties” - an ambiguous claim but one that casually infers recreational drug use and the excess of the rock n roll lifestyle. Furthermore, in Hard to Explain, Casablancas sings “I say the right things but act the wrong way” and “I am too young and they are too old” creating a divisive “us vs them” attitude from the younger generation. This theme continues throughout the entirety of the album and goes onto further fuel the ideas of a hedonist.
Fifteen years on Is This It still possesses a melancholic vibe which makes the listener nostalgic for their younger years - even for someone like me who, at 20 years old, is still relatively young. Despite this, it has an incredible ability to evoke a sense of imperishable rebellion, unfading youth and a need to go out and get absolutely, categorically and irreversibly fucked with no apology. Happy birthday Is This It, continue ripening with age like the fine liquor that you are.
