Opinion: Albums That Changed My Life (The Strokes)

In the third edition of our regular editorial series Curtis, our Major Label Account Manager tells us about an album and band that changed his life and shaped who he is today.

The album that had the most profound impact on my life came across my ears at the age of 12. Prior to that point, my musical taste largely came from a small handful of different sources. There was my older brother’s taste in music, which was rooted firmly in the 90’s Brit-Pop explosion. The Much Music video countdown that was a smattering of Rock, Pop, and Hip-Hop. And finally my small-but-tight circle of friends, all of whom had aspirations of being “Rock Stars”. It wasn’t until the release of this 2001 album that I can definitively say that music became the centerpiece of my identity.

My brother, who was 9 years older than me, had a subscription to NME magazine. In the summer of that year they ran an interview with Noel Gallahger of Oasis. I don’t recall the specifics, but Noel had mentioned this up and coming band from NYC that he was keeping his eye on. This band was called The Strokes. Their debut album, due out that fall, was titled Is This It.

There wasn’t a lot of detail in terms of their music or what they sounded like. Remember, accessing music online was still in its infancy at this point. Illegal download services like Napster, LimeWire, and Kazaa were all the rage. With no releases under their belt other than a scarcely-distributed EP, The Strokes were still essentially unknown. My brother took Noel’s word as gospel, so he placed an order with a retailer to import a UK version of Is This It to our sleepy suburban home. Nothing would ever be the same!

A few weeks passed. I remember coming home from skateboarding with my friends, and my brother said that the album had arrived. We tore open the packaging to uncover a fairly provocative album cover – what appeared to be a woman’s nude buttocks from the side, with a leather glove resting on it. The liner notes of the album contained photos of the band members. Fab, Nick, Nikolai, Albert (with cigarette), and Julian all appeared in a greyscale – they were effortlessly cool. My mother asked my brother if he “thinks it will be appropriate for a 12 year old?” He had no way of knowing, but he said “No, it’s not like that. They’re just a Rock band.”

We put the CD in my dad’s stereo system, pressed play, and everything changed. The sounds of Nu-Metal and over-produced commercial Rock instantly began to fade from my brain as I listened to the lo-fi drums, jangly guitars, and Julian Casablancas’ AM radio-worthy crooning. The title track of the record set the tone – sonically, it harkened back to an era before I was born but it somehow signaled the sound of what was to come.

Track 2, The Modern Age erupts with a pounding drum beat. Syncopated guitars battled, Julian’s vocals cut through the mix, and a guitar solo (that remains an all-time favorite) melted my brain. How could a band have captured something so raw, yet so refined? It was like nothing I’d heard before and the impact was profound.

Over the course of the first half of the album, the picture they were trying to paint became more clear. Tight, catchy Rock n’ Roll driven by simplicity and the sound of “underproduction”. It was a breath of fresh air against the thick-sounding records that were popular at the time. Creed’s Arms Wide Open was one of the big hits that year, and I definitely tried to learn it on guitar. Something about the way The Strokes approached Rock was decidedly different and that’s what hooked me.

We worked our way through the record, and eventually got to track 9. This song, New York City Cops, exclaims “they ain’t too smart”. It was edgy, it was cool. I would learn a few months later that after the September 11th attacks, The Strokes would remove this song from their North American release (in addition to changing the album artwork). I felt like I had a bit of history, knowing that I had a more-rare version of the record. 

Hearing songs like Someday and Last Night on the radio in the months that followed was a treat. I remember being on a family vacation in Mexico at the end of that year. Our hotel room had a TV that we’d watch at night and MTV was one of the channels. MTV was a big deal to us, because we didn’t get it in Canada. I remember seeing the video for Last Night playing, I felt like the band had achieved wider validation. The video was a live performance of the song, which was something that I had never seen a band do at that time. Most videos were big-budget short-films and this video felt like an era-correct piece to accompany the music.

Luckily for me, this album came out right around the time that I began playing instruments. My dad and brother played guitar, so I had started to pick up bits and pieces through them. I had also expressed an interest in drumming around this time, which would later become my full time job for almost a decade. This album was the tipping point for me. I wanted to learn every single part on every instrument. I studied the parts. I scoured the internet for guitar tabs. I remember conquering the bass line to the title track. My friends and I would try to jam the simpler songs, and this would become the foundation of my career in music.

The Strokes were also the first real concert that I ever went to. My brother (the true hero of this story) took me in 2002 to see them at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto for my birthday. Canadian Rock legends Sloan opened the show. It felt like the moment that I knew I wanted to play music forever in front of people. Forever is a long time, but I’ve been able to play music live on a regular basis for the last 20 years. I even did it full-time between 2015-2020. It’s a wild thing to write, but this album helped steer my path in life!

To this day, this album remains one that stays in regular rotation for me. I often come back to it when I’m feeling like I’m over complicating things in my musicality. I also find myself continuously drawn to the rawness and precision that this album is hailed for. I own multiple copies on vinyl – a standard pressing and a limited split-colored numbered run. It’s a gorgeous blue and orange, which matches the fantastic North American artwork that it’s largely known for. It’s definitely one of my prized pieces of vinyl in my collection.

This album has been acclaimed by critics and the masses, even though it never reached a point of top-tier radio play. It helped drive the “back to basics” sound of bands like The White Stripes, The Hives, Jet, and even The Killers. My band still covers some choice tracks (read: the singles) and we always get a reaction from the crowd. It’s clear that this album not only had an impact on me, but many music fans and musicians over the last 20 years.

Find out more and purchase album – thestrokes.com