GoSale.com :: Reviews by A3HIKR9PV85L4B

Reviews Written By: A3HIKR9PV85L4B

provided by Amazon.com


	The Strokes - Is This It
	"A Classic Album"	2007-05-30
I bought this album a little over a year ago, and I've probably listened to it over 200 times since then -- seriously. I realize that I'm way late to the party, but I wasn't paying much attention to the music scene back in 2001 and I lived in California. I certainly wasn't aware of all the hype surrounding the Strokes -- their look, alleged influences, "importance to rock music," etc. All I knew was their hit, "Last Night," and remember thinking: "that's a catchy tune, but it seems to me that the singer is trying to sing like Lou Reed on "Rock 'n Roll" and the guitarist stole the riff from Tom Petty's "American Girl." The video from the same song reminded me of the High School bands that I remember seeing back in the early-to-mid '80s. I kind of liked it, but just sort of forgot about the Strokes. It seems that along the way a lot of others have forgotten about the Strokes, too, which I mostly blame on the Strokes, themselves. But I'll get to that later. But first, since becoming an "Is this It" devotee and diving back into the music scene, I've concluded that the Strokes were terribly misunderstood back in 2001. I think part of it has to do with how important a "rock scene" is to critics -- how is shapes their views of The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Television, etc. I think critics back in 2001 wanted very badly for the Strokes to be a second coming of SOME NY band that came out any of the oft-noted NY rock scenes of the past. Some just fabricated the connections and praised them for it; others realized this wasn't the case and slagged them as poseurs. To name some examples: I think that the comparisons to Television and The Stooges border on ludicrous. Comparisons to The Velvet Underground are valid, but mostly insofar as they relate to the similarity between Julian Casablancas' vocals and Lou Reed's on "Rock 'n Roll" and "Head Held High" (off the Loaded album). Frankly, in addition to the above-mentioned Tom Petty riff, some of the stuff from Joy Division and the Cure sound closer to the Strokes' sound than these other bands. Heck, I think I heard the Repitilia opening riff on Belle & Sebastian's "Judy Dick Slap." But that's neither here nor there, because what I've learned from listening to a bunch of current bands that I like -- The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Shins, Spoon, Of Montreal, etc. -- is that that they ALL lift riffs, melodies, etc. from others. Heck, even Radiohead, on their epic OK, Computer, sounds an awful like Pink Floyd, the Smiths, and even Rush, in parts. So, yes, the Strokes might have clipped together sound fragments they liked, but they did it artfully (unlike, say, Oasis, who I like, but don't love partly for this reason), in my opinion, like many other excellent bands do. The important thing here is the songs -- and the songs on this album are all great -- not "epic", but extremely catchy and unique. Unless I'm completely out of touch -- and that's a distinct possibility -- if I were in college today, "Is this It" would be one of the first and last records I would go to if I had a little party going on in my dorm room. If someone wants to argue that the songs are "slight," OK, I'll buy it. If someone wants to say that there are roughly two songs here -- one more "Rock 'n Roll" and the other more "New Wavey" -- played five different ways each, I'll buy that, too. Finally, if someone wants to say that the band, itself, doesn't show true "virtuosity" as musicians or that the record, itself, didn't push new musical boundaries, like, say, "Sgt. Pepper," "Dark Side of the Moon," "OK Computer," etc., fair enough. Except in the case of Julian Casablancas, who delivers the finest vocals on this record as almost any you'll ever hear since Kurt Cobain on Nevermind or Tom Yorke on OK, Computer. Some describe Casablancas' vocals as "listless" or "bored," but this only tells a small part of the story. Yes, at times he does sound bored, but then oftentimes, he'll go from bored, to growling, to outright shouting. Just check out "The Modern Age," "Last Night," "Take it or Leave it," well almost every song. One could argue that Casablancas' vocals are aided by a megaphone-like distortion; I don't disagree, but that doesn't change how effective they are for me. IIf all you did was focus carefully on Casablancas' vocals, I think there's a chance you'd become as hooked on this record as I have. In fact, I urge you to do just that. And on the note of production, I think the band and Gordon Raphael made a brilliant decision to make the album "sound" as retro as it does. The Strokes asked Raphael to produce a record which sounded like it was a band from the future returning to the past -- and he did. This album sounds, in style and substance, like it could have served as the soundtrack to "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Unfortunately, the Strokes haven't been productive, recording-wise, since "Is this It," coming out with only two records -- the good-but-not-great "Room on Fire" and "First Impressions of Earth" -- in the nearly-six years since then, and unlikely to produce another until at least 2008. And that's a shame. Just imagine if we were sitting here, say, in 1989, and R.E.M. had only "Murmur," "Fables of the Reconstruction" and "Green" to show for themselves; or in 1970 and the Beatles had only made a "Please Please Me/With the Beatles" combo, "Beatles for Sale" and "Let It Be." [No, I am not saying that the Strokes are in the same class as either band, especially the Beatles]. They'd each have done some great stuff and some good stuff, but would have also missed out on producing almost two-handfuls of classic albums between them. The Strokes SHOULD have come out with an album between "Is This It" and "Room on Fire;" they SHOULD have come out with TWO albums between "Room on Fire" and "First Impressions of Earth." Heck, I'd argue that they maybe they SHOULD have come out with an album since "First Impressions of Earth." Then, maybe, we'd have another classic Strokes' album or two to enjoy, in addition to the one we have with "Is this It."
	Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
	"An Obviously Great CD...that my computer won't play"	2007-04-25
We all know how great the songs are on this CD -- 5-Star all the way. However, I guess there's an unlucky few oddballs among us who can't play the SACD hybrid CD format of this particular reissue on our PC. Which also means that we can't add the CD to our iTunes or iPod music selections. In this day and age, that's severely limiting, so I regret this purchase (I don't have some jalopy of a PC/processor either, as my computer is less than seven months old, with 2GB of RAM). I don't know who to blame for my "mistake" -- myself? Amazon? Sony? Philips? ABKCO? I'll blame myself and be more careful next time -- in part by avoiding "DSD-" or "SACD-" labeled items. I'll also give the CD 1 Star on the basis of its limited technological usefulness to me.