Is This It

Ah, sweet hype. The Strokes have had it hanging off every note they’ve played since day one. Blame the Brits, who stuck the New York City quintet on the cover of NME and declared them the saviors of rock’n’roll before they’d even released their first EP. So obviously, this, their first full-length, sucks, right? Well, no. In fact, it’s pretty damn great. Wearing their well-picked influences (The Stooges, the Velvet Underground, The Doors) on their designer sleeves, the Strokes kick out stylish garage-rock with an unhinged, nearly primitive, flair. Admittedly, the versions of the “The Modern Age,” “Barely Legal,” and “Last Nite” on the band’s deservedly lauded debut EP, The Modern Age, sounded quite a bit more visceral, but the ass-wagging, Bowie-ish “Someday” and the dark, sneering “Alone, Together” are as invigorating as any rock we’ve heard this year. Whether they’ll be the Next Big Thing or the next Jonathan Fire*Eater (Remember them? Exactly.) still remains to be seen, but the Strokes have held up their end of the bargain.