I can't stop listening to The Strokes seminal debut work Is This It. I can't stop listening to it so much that I have even, rashly, just bought the US Import version of the same CD for a whole £4.99 (it's all about the different cover artwork, and the omission of the track New York City Cops for When It Started - a decision taken in light of the 9/11 terror just as the record was going to press/being released in 2001)
The album is just brilliant. Basically, it was the birth of late 90s/early noughties Garage Rock Revival, or as it has become more widely know as... all-out Indie music. Moving away from the mire of grunge was more than welcome, by myself, if not by anyone else. Although, for those who don't know, this record made The Strokes HUGE, so I think the sentiment was shared!! It's such an optimistic set of tracks, fast-paced, romantic, modern, and joyous. What's more, the album has a beautiful 'stuck-in-time-ness' about it. It encapsulates the time it came from so perfectly, carefree. It basically involved getting drunk, having fun, no pretension, and not giving a fuck! Summed up in Someday.
Anyway, I have got totally sidetracked. I wanted to get into Roman Coppola, the director for all the bands videos off Is This It. They are real simple, jokey and enjoyable affairs, which resonates and sympathise with the tone of the record. For instance, Last Night shows the band simply set up in a studio, drinking and playing, basic. This was a tried-and-tested method that the Arctic Monkeys re-used (ahem!) out-right copied when it was realised that they were going to be the biggest thing since, well... The Strokes!! Someday, shows the band indulging in fun. They appear in a (forced) Family Fortunes style panel show, and their being playful. Yet, an intimacy is shared on camera, as shots from the game-show are cut with time spent with friends, chilling in downtown bar in New York.
Hard To Explain has to be the most memorable and intriguing vids, out of them all, as it questions what you see, and questions life at large. Coppola's direction is clever, he introduces the band subtly, and plays his part in being controversial by including sexual content, images of bombs, etc. whilst keeping the image of the band... very, innocent-looking! Dropped after the video for for sci-fi effort on 12:51, that seems to be the end of their love affair! But what a great and iconic one it was!!
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