Picks and Pans Review: 'Is This It'

The Strokes (RCA)

A generation after their spiritual forebears—Lou Reed and the Ramones—danced on disco’s ashes, these brash young bloods had a rude awakening following Sept. 11. Set for release Sept. 25, this debut album had to be rushed back to the factory to remove a song that bounced to the refrain “New York City cops, they ain’t too smart.”

What the band lacks in taste, it makes up for in energy, courtesy of jerky beats and rapid-fire guitar riffs that result in unwashed, muddy rock. The single “Last Nite” skips and shouts like Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” bringing back a time when you couldn’t come to the gig without a skinny tie.

Bottom Line: Party like it’s 1979