Maps of Music

Is This It (2001)

Where the lyrics of Is This It take you, and where it was really made.

The original cover photo was already printed for the July and August 2001 versions, yet the American edition swapped it for a bubble-chamber image.

Place unknown

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Is This It: debut studio album by New York rock band the Strokes
First released July 30, 2001 in Australia; RCA handled international release, Rough Trade the UK
Japan release August 22, UK release August 27, 2001
Three singles: "Hard to Explain", "Last Nite", "Someday"
Lineup: Julian Casablancas, Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr., Nikolai Fraiture, Fabrizio Moretti
Lyrics focus on the lives and relationships of young people in New York City

1998 lineup: Casablancas, Valensi, Fraiture, Moretti; Hammond Jr. joined as second guitarist that year
Built on the 2001 EP The Modern Age; three songs later on the album were recorded with producer Gordon Raphael
Rough Trade released The Modern Age in January 2001
The Strokes signed to RCA in March 2001 after a protracted bidding war
Early sessions with Gil Norton, producer of Pixies, were scrapped as "too clean" and "too pretentious"
Casablancas wanted the album to sound like a band from the past that took a time trip into the future

Recorded at Transporterraum in New York City with Gordon Raphael during March and April 2001
Studio is located in a basement in Manhattan's East Village with poor lighting
Most songs were built from live takes; the band wanted them to sound like them playing live
Casablancas sang through a small Peavey practice amp to keep a low-fidelity feel
Songs were usually recorded only once; studio effects were kept to a minimum
Two guitars were each miked from Fender DeVille amps on opposite sides of the room
Six weeks in the studio; Raphael mixed as he went

International cover art by Colin Lane shows a woman's rear and hip with a leather-gloved hand resting on it
The model was Lane's then-girlfriend; the shoot was spontaneous
American release in October 2001 used a psychedelic photo of subatomic particle tracks in a bubble chamber
Back cover changed to a painting called View of the Citadel on the Capitol by Jacques Carlu
Booklet portraits of the band, Raphael, Gentles and Bowersock were all photographed by Lane

The Strokes are an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1998.
Lead vocalist and primary songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti made up the lineup, which has remained unchanged since formation.
Casablancas, Valensi and Moretti began playing together as teenagers at Dwight School in Manhattan and formed an informal band in 1997.
Fraiture, a childhood friend of Casablancas, joined later, and Hammond Jr. was the last member to join, at the end of 1998.
Their first show as the Strokes was on September 14, 1999, at The Spiral.
The Modern Age EP (2001), recorded with producer Gordon Raphael, sparked a bidding war among record labels and they eventually signed with RCA Records.

Debut album Is This It (2001) received widespread critical acclaim and has appeared on numerous greatest-albums lists.
Later albums include Room on Fire (2003), First Impressions of Earth (2005), Angles (2011), Comedown Machine (2013), and The New Abnormal (2020), which was produced by Rick Rubin and won Best Rock Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards.
Seventh album Reality Awaits was released on July 24, 2026.
The band's sound is described as indie rock, garage rock revival and post-punk revival, and later incorporated new wave and synth-pop.

Metacritic: normalized rating of 91 from 26 critical reviews
Rolling Stone's Joe Levy said the record is 'the stuff of which legends are made'
NME's John Robinson gave a perfect 10, calling it one of the best debut LPs by a guitar band in 20 years
Entertainment Weekly's David Browne gave it an A−, saying it 'just feels right'
Blender's Mark Lepage compared it to 1970s bands such as the Velvet Underground and Television
Stylus's Jon Monks said its shallowness kept it from ever being called a classic
Exclaim!'s Rob Bolton gave a mixed review

In 2019 The Guardian ranked it second on its 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list
Rolling Stone ranked it 367th in its 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums, 199th in 2012, and 114th in the 2020 reboot

UK Albums Chart peak number two, with 48,393 copies in the first week
US Billboard 200 peak number 33, after a previous high of 63
Named best album of 2001 by Billboard, CMJ, Entertainment Weekly, NME, Playlouder and Time
2002: Best Album at the NME Awards; Brit Awards nomination in the Best International Album category
2002: UK platinum (300,000), Australia platinum (70,000), US gold for 500,000 shipments (February 2002)

After the September 11 attacks, the CD release moved from September 25 to October 9, and "New York City Cops" was replaced by "When It Started" on the CD.
The vinyl release kept the original track list because it fell on September 11.
Raphael faced an eviction threat from his Transporterraum studio, but time and money stopped being pressing once RCA backed the band.
RCA's A&R delegate first disliked the recordings; Casablancas won him over by playing new material on a boom box.
Casablancas told the band's manager he had found something even cooler than the cover photo.
The Strokes liked Raphael's lack of ego, which helped the producer and band build a good working relationship.