hard to explain

So I've been reading alot of these Best of the 2000s (noughties is such a stupid name)

 I read Q's Best albums of the decade list and was delighted to find The Strokes' Is This It (top to bottom, it's my second favorite album ever behind Abbey Road) ranked #2. I was also kinda surprised to read a couple of bands say how The Strokes influenced them. I mean, the Strokes are not old geezers, they're still all young and hip, but yet we have bands like The Killers and Arctic Monkey openly saying that if not for The Strokes they may not have even formed. I'm a bit disgusted that the flaming Brendan Flowers took so much inspiration from The Strokes, but that's some big compliments coming from the Monkeys, who are not too shabby themselves.

Anyway, so yeah with that said. The Stroke's greatness early on has led to this misconception that they've been disappointing ever since. I mean check out what Spin magazine wrote here:

What? Albert Hammond's solo albums were rad. And the second and third albums were great.

Now today I read the Sunday Morning Post and in the review section, some chick picked the 12 songs of the decade... like a mixtape to sum up this decade. The Strokes' Last Nite made it on the list, and again the piece menitoned how "the quality of the work declinded after"...

Most media talk abuot the second album Room on Fire like it sucked, but both HKHonestly and I think those people are talking out of their asses--Room on Fire is a damn fine album. Perhaps not as mindblowingly cool as Is This It was, but still.

But anyway, let's get back to Is This It. How good is this album? It's the only album to be near the top of every list, both British and Americans. And that's a big deal considering the Americans and British lists are drastically different. The British lists favors obscure bands made up of average looking joes you couldn't tell apart from your local video store clerk. On those lists are names like Super Furry Animals, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, etc. The Americans tend to favor over the top brothas. Kanye, Jay Z, Beyonce, Missy Elliots albums are almost always near the top. Generally, the British lists are made up of indy guitar riffs and American lists are like poppy club hits.

BUT, the Strokes made it on both.

To celebrate the greatness of well, my second favorite album of all time, lets listen to this...

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df45Fj6R--A

how cool and hip was this video when it showed up?

i basically grew out my hair and got skinny jeans cause of this band. too fucking cool.

and they could play music... yeah