|
Somewhere Lou Reed is laughing---or
crying--- until he wets his pants. Some 35 years ago Reed with
the Velvet Underground recorded THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO,
one of the 10 -- no, make that 5 -- best rock records ever made
and one that has influenced the genre ever since, eventually
spawning the punk rock and whole alternative music scene. Reed's
reward after making four records with the band and changing the
course of rock n' roll was to become so disillusioned that he
quit the business altogether for a few years while he worked in
his father's office.
So now we have The Strokes, an
NYC band that the music trades are going nuts for. The venerable
New Musical Express is calling them the most important band to
come out of New York in over 20 years. Do they live up to that
hype? Well, no (and remind me to send the lads at NME a copy of
a Talking Heads CD...what? Oh, that was way more than 20 years
ago? Okay...). But IS THIS IT by The Strokes comes close to
leading you to that conclusion by turning the whole Velvet
Underground influence thing back in upon itself and releasing
something which sounds in spots as if it could have been a
collection of lost sessions from that venerable band.
Julian Casablancas, vocalist for
The Strokes, has the whole Reed thing down pat, the disaffected,
out-of-it drone rising up from the middle of the mix, intriguing
and chilling all at once, sucking you in and kicking you to the
curb at the same time. There are no time wasters or fillers
here.
Everything clocks in at around
three minutes and change, wham-bam, in and out, 11 times. There
isn't a "Heroin" (though there is a "Soma")
or "Venus in Furs" on here---those topics have been
done to death elsewhere. "The Modern Age" comes the
closest to a full-out V.U. romp, but rather than being about
tasting the whip it's about the mating dance two people will do
when feeling the joint tugs of mutual attraction and
uncertainty. Topicwise, the guys stray into Velvet territory on
"Barely Legal" but the track is hardly going to
kickstart a controversy. While the V.U. Influence permeates the
entire CD, however, that doesn't keep The Strokes from
stretching themselves and treading, however lightly, into other
areas. "Someday" is an intriguing side trip into an
ultimate universe where a teenage Paul Weller instead of John
Cale might have collaborated with Lou Reed, while "Alone,
Together" is the track that is the missing link between the
Velvets and The Offspring. "Last Night," on the other
hand, sounds like a hi-fi "Jamming With Edward track, with
a late night jam between Reed, Tom Petty, and Joe Strummer
replacing Mick Jagger and Nicky Hopkins.
Clocking in at just short of 36
minutes, without a wasted moment from beginning to end, and full
of languid energy, IS THIS IT answers its own question. This may
not be the most important band out of NYC in the last 20 years,
but it is certainly one of the most welcome.
|
| Artist |
The Strokes |
| Title |
Is This It? |
| Label |
RCA |
| Reviewer |
Joe Hartlaub |
| Rating |
 |
|
 |
|
|
| win stuff |
 |
|
|
Contents
Home
|
