Vinyl Record
The Strokes - Is This It
The Strokes - Is This It on LP vinyl. A 2001 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.
LP ยท 2001
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 2001 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.
Is This It is The Strokes in 2001 making rock minimalism feel glamorous again. Recorded in New York with Gordon Raphael, the debut arrived with astonishing self-control: no extended jams, no overblown production, no pleading for seriousness, just clipped guitars, dry drums, melodic bass and Julian Casablancas singing as if charisma itself had a hangover. The title track drifts in underlit and skeptical, The Modern Age and Barely Legal tighten the pulse, Someday turns nostalgia into a hook before the band had even grown old, and Last Nite became the obvious public flare. Part of the album's force is historical: after late-1990s rock bloat, Is This It made restriction sound like revolution. It drew from garage rock, post-punk, New York cool and pop economy, but the result felt less like revivalism than a reset button pressed with a cigarette still burning nearby.
It matters because Is This It helped define the early-2000s garage-rock revival and re-centered lean guitar bands in mainstream conversation. Its influence came from discipline as much as attitude: the songs are short, sharp and built with almost architectural restraint.
For collectors, this is the essential Strokes debut and one of the key rock albums of the 2000s. The draw is not only Last Nite or Someday, but the way the whole record sustains a complete aesthetic from the first bassline to the closing track.
Lean New York indie rock with clipped rhythm guitars, dry room sound, melodic bass, compressed vocals, garage-rock bite, post-punk economy and a coolly exhausted sense of urban romance.
Recommended for: Collectors building a core 2000s indie-rock shelf; Listeners interested in the garage-rock revival's defining albums; Fans of Last Nite, Someday, The Modern Age and effortless guitar minimalism.
When was Is This It released? Is This It was first released in 2001 and became The Strokes' debut studio album. Who produced Is This It? The album was produced by Gordon Raphael, whose dry, direct sound helped shape its identity. Why is Is This It considered important? It helped spark a new wave of interest in lean guitar bands and became a defining record of early-2000s indie rock.