#199 of the Top 200 Albums of All Time

The Strokes - ‘Is This It’ comes in at 199 and it’s touted as a refreshing blast of retro that changed everything in the early 2000s. Well… it is a solid retro pop record that sounds a lot like the Coral except the Coral do it better, and it sounds a lot like The Killers and even a bit of Franz Ferdinand, but they kind of do it better… even the Hives at this point. It’s a solid pop record, but it’s hardly a “burst,” and today it sounds dated and like a demo of good ideas. Is it fun? Sure. Is it all that… not really and I’m not sure why it’s at this point in a list of the all time best. You could put anything by The Who in this spot instead. It might just be me, but it’s not really impressing for an all time best album. It doesn’t make me want to explore for more, but I can see why people thought this was fun and cranked it in the car.