Wednesday, October 12, 2011

sentences from a tribute to The Strokes’s debut as bestest /decade-defining-est album of last ten years

style over substance, unoriginality, excessive hype

the most damning early criticism about the Strokes was that they looked and sounded shockingly derivative

“everything about the Strokes seemed like it was lifted from ’60s and ’70s garage rock

the entire song “The Modern Age” was a Velvet Underground song—specifically “I’m Waiting for the Man.”

"[Casablancas to producer Gordon Raphael' 'We want to sound like a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record.'”

a tightly knit musical unit playing live, all in one room, committing it to tape with a fuzzy and nostalgic analog warmth

to the band’s eternal credit, they fought hard to preserve this neo-vintage sound—very much against the wishes of their new bosses at RCA

the album captures the sound of five guys playing as one. For all the griping about the Strokes’ lack of innovation, their emotional commitment was never a question

“while a God who loves his creation will surely see to it that young men won’t be wearing skinny jeans and attending Killers concerts another decade from now, they’ll still be listening to—and loving—Is This It. They might mistake the Strokes for a band from the mid-’70s, but they’ll be listening.

Yes those were sentences from a tribute to The Strokes’s Is This It as bestest/most decade-defining-est LP of the past ten years.

said album/band defining its decade, the writer seems to say, by referring back to an era of rock 25 to 35 years earlier

thing is, i'm not much of fan (enjoyed the album quite a bit at the time, didn't bother to follow what they did next) but even I don’t think the Strokes were that derivative...

i mean, you can tell the sound is not of-this-time, that's its point... there's a vague harking-back but it's not a straight duplication of anything (certainly not Television)

still: interesting, maybe indicative even, that someone ostensibly championing The Strokes would pen something closer to apologia than exaltation

apropos of nothing really