The Strokes - Is This It [Limited Edition, Transparent Red] (LP) Vinyl

Is This It is the debut studio album by the American rock band The Strokes, first released on 30 July 2001 in Australia, with RCA Records handling the international release and Rough Trade Records the United Kingdom release on 27 August 2001. It was recorded at Transporterraum in New York City with producer Gordon Raphael during March and April 2001, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential albums of its era, crucial in the reinvention of post-millennium guitar music.

The Album

For their debut the band set out to capture a simple sound that was not significantly enhanced in the studio. Building on their 2001 EP The Modern Age, the group moulded the compositions largely through live takes during the sessions, while singer and songwriter Julian Casablancas detailed the lives and relationships of urban youth in his lyrics. The music has been described as garage rock revival, indie rock and post-punk revival, and every song on the album was mixed using eleven or fewer audio tracks. Three singles were taken from it: "Hard to Explain", "Last Nite" and "Someday". The group deliberately left the grammatically correct question mark out of the title because, aesthetically, it did not look right.

Recording

After signing to RCA the Strokes began work with Gil Norton, but they were unhappy with the preliminary sessions, which they felt sounded too clean and too pretentious, and the three songs recorded with him were scrapped. The album was instead made with Gordon Raphael at Transporterraum, a basement studio in Manhattan's East Village. Over six weeks the band usually recorded each song only once, following Casablancas's preference for raw efficiency. The drum kit was miked with just three microphones, one above the kit, one for the bass drum and one in the corner of the studio, to capture a compressed, explosive sound. Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. both used Fender DeVille amplifiers on opposite sides of the room, fed straight into a preamp with no equalisation, while Casablancas sang through a small Peavey practice amp to retain a sense of low fidelity. Greg Calbi mastered the record.

Cover Artwork

The international cover art is by Colin Lane and features a photograph of a woman's rear and hip with a leather-gloved hand resting on it. The model was Lane's then girlfriend, and the shoot was spontaneous; a stylist had left the glove at his apartment. The result was later included in the book The Greatest Album Covers of All Time. For the American release in October 2001 the artwork was changed to a psychedelic photograph of subatomic particle tracks in a bubble chamber. This pressing carries the original international Colin Lane sleeve.

This Pressing

This is the limited edition reissue on a single 12 inch LP pressed on transparent red vinyl, released on 12 January 2024 by RCA and Legacy through Sony Music Entertainment under catalogue number 19658801691 and made in the EU. It was pressed by Record Industry and plays at 33 1/3 rpm. The record sits in a plain white poly-lined inner sleeve with label windows, and the shrink wrap carries a red hype sticker reading Limited Edition, Transparent Red Vinyl, featuring Last Nite and Someday. The eleven track international running order is used, so "New York City Cops" is present; that song was replaced by "When It Started" on the American CD release following the September 11 attacks, although the American vinyl retained it.

Reception

Is This It entered the UK Albums Chart at number two after first week sales of 48,393 copies and reached number 33 on the US Billboard 200, going on to be certified platinum in the UK in 2002. The aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalised rating of 91 based on 26 critical reviews. NME named it the best album of the 2000s in 2009, The Guardian placed it second in its 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century in 2019, and Rolling Stone ranked it number 114 in the 2020 revision of its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Track Listing

Side A
1. Is This It
2. The Modern Age
3. Soma
4. Barely Legal
5. Someday

Side B
1. Alone, Together
2. Last Nite
3. Hard To Explain
4. New York City Cops
5. Trying Your Luck
6. Take It Or Leave It