Where does Is This It rank among the greatest albums of all time?

Is This It by The Strokes (2001) is ranked № 100 of 100 in The Lead-In’s definitive, ever-evolving ranking of the greatest albums ever recorded.

Who produced Is This It?

Is This It was produced by Gordon Raphael · The Strokes.

When was Is This It released?

Is This It was released on July 30, 2001 (UK); October 9, 2001 (US).

How did Is This It perform on the charts?

Chart peak — #33 (Billboard 200).

The Lead-In

№ 100 of 100

Is This It

The Strokes · 2001 · Punk / Indie

Is This It by The Strokes (2001), № 100 in The Lead-In’s 100 greatest albums. Gordon Raphael in a Manhattan basement with five kids in skinny jeans. New York rock comes back for a decade because of this record.

Eleven tracks in thirty-six minutes. Recorded at Transporterraum studio in New York with Gordon Raphael producing, the second attempt after rejected initial sessions. The Strokes' debut LP, released by Rough Trade in July 2001 (UK) and RCA in October 2001 (US). The album that converted New York post-punk revival from underground gossip into international commercial-pop form and inaugurated the 2000s indie-rock garage-revival vocabulary every subsequent garage-rock-revival band has worked within.

Released: July 30, 2001 (UK); October 9, 2001 (US)
Label: Rough Trade (UK, RTRADLP030); RCA Records (US, 68101)
Producer(s): Gordon Raphael · The Strokes
Runtime: 36:19 (11 tracks)
Chart peak (US): #33 (Billboard 200)
Chart peak (UK): #2
Certifications: 2× Platinum (BPI, 2011); Platinum (RIAA, 2015)
Awards & honours: Mercury Prize nomination (2002); ranked #115 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums (2020); routinely cited as the canonical garage-rock-revival LP of the 2000s

The Strokes in mid-2000 were a five-piece New York band, Julian Casablancas (lead vocals), Nick Valensi (lead guitar), Albert Hammond Jr. (rhythm guitar), Nikolai Fraiture (bass), Fabrizio Moretti (drums), coalescing around private-school connections between Casablancas, Fraiture, and Moretti at the Lycée Français de New York and at the Dwight School. The band had been playing the Lower East Side bar circuit since 1999. RCA Records and Rough Trade Records both pursued the band through late 2000; the dual UK / US contractual arrangement was set by spring 2001.

Initial recording sessions with producer Gil Norton (Pixies' Doolittle, Foo Fighters' The Colour and the Shape) were attempted in late 2000 and rejected. Casablancas and the band wanted a deliberately-rougher production aesthetic than Norton's commercial-pop polish. Gordon Raphael, a New York producer with substantial underground catalogue, was contracted for the second-attempt sessions at his Transporterraum studio on East 4th Street.

Sessions ran approximately four weeks across late 2000 and early 2001. Raphael's production methodology was deliberately stripped-down: live-tracking with minimal overdubbing, deliberately-rough mixing, deliberate preservation of room ambience and amp noise. The 11-track album was completed in spring 2001.

Rough Trade released the album in the UK on July 30, 2001, the original UK pressing carried the famously-pixelated 'butt' cover photograph (Colin Lane's image of a woman's lower torso in a translucent shower curtain). The US release was delayed and the cover image was replaced for the US edition with a different photograph (the band's signed contract had given RCA editorial control over the US cover). The 'New York City Cops' track was also removed from the US release after the September 11, 2001 attacks; the replacement track was 'When It Started.' The two-edition US-UK release became a Strokes-collector reference point.

Critical reception was extraordinary and unanimous. The UK release drew immediate Mercury Prize attention; the US release converted underground-press attention into commercial-pop sales. The album reached UK #2 (held off #1 by Kylie Minogue's Fever) and US #33; lifetime sales have exceeded two million units worldwide.

Is This It belongs at number ninety-eight because it is the album that converted New York post-punk revival from underground gossip into international commercial-pop form and inaugurated the 2000s indie-rock garage-revival vocabulary every subsequent garage-rock-revival band has worked within. Every subsequent Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, the Killers commercial-pop indie-rock LP runs on the proof Is This It delivered. The Rolling Stone 2020 #115 ranking confirms the canonical-text status.

Pressing guide — the one to own

Original 2001 UK/European pressing, Rough Trade RTRADELP030 (note the 'E', not 'RTRADLP030'), with Colin Lane's original gloved-hip cover and the original eleven-track running order that includes 'New York City Cops'. The US edition swapped the cover and replaced 'New York City Cops' with 'When It Started', so the Rough Trade vinyl is the version collectors want. Confirm the RTRADELP030 catalogue number and the presence of 'New York City Cops' to verify a first press.