Day After Day #164: Take It or Leave It

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Take It or Leave It (2001)

It's not easy to be The Next Big Thing. Some artists can handle it, but others end up never living up to the hype. 

In 2001, the Strokes were hailed by some as the saviors of rock music. In the years following the grunge/alt-rock explosion of the early '90s, popular music was dominated by pop from the likes of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys and hip hop, although nu-metal from Korn and Limp Bizkit was hitting with a certain segment of JNCO-wearing high school kids. But the Strokes made it cool to listen to guitar music again.

The NYC-based group released a debut EP, The Modern Age, in early 2001 and after a bidding war, signed with RCA Records. Their debut album, This Is It, came out in July '01 and critics were falling all over themselves to praise the group. The band, led by singer Julian Casablancas and guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., deliberately emulated New York bands like the Velvet Underground, Television and the Feelies and had that gritty late '70s CBGB sound down pat. It was a winning formula, and the band is credited with leading the garage rock revival of the early '00s along with bands like the White Stripes and the Hives. 

It's also the sound of a band fully locked in together and delivering the goods. The timing was perfect for the Strokes because clearly the market was looking for guitar music to get behind. Of course, this was still a time when commercial radio, MTV and music magazines could still break bands, and all of them were hailing the greatness of the Strokes. They didn't bowl me over at first, but once I started listening more, I was sold. Same thing happened with Nirvana, tbh. 

There are many great songs on Is This It, but "Take It or Leave It" is the real grabber for me. It's the last track on the album and Casablancas, who typically has a laid-back vocal style, really goes for it here, pushing his raspy voice to the limit.

"Leave me alone/I'm in control/I'm in control/And girls lie too much/And boys act too tough/Enough is enough/Well, on the minds of other men/I know she was/I said just take it or leave it."

The upbeat riff chugs along as Casablancas warns about bad intentions.

"I say, oh he's gonna let you down/He's gonna let you down/He's gonna let you down/And gonna break your back for a chance/And gonna steal your friends if he can/He's gonna win someday/I fell off the track/Now I can't go back/I'm not like that/Boys lie too much/Girls act too tough/Enough is enough/Well, on the minds of other girls/I know he was/I said just take it or leave it."

It's the sound of a confident bunch of good musicians, those guys in skinny jeans with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, ending their debut album with a slice of excellence that leaves you excited for more. 

Of course, with that much hype (some outlets were calling them the new Rolling Stones and the new Velvet Underground), things were bound to disappoint eventually. Check out the great book Meet Me in the Bathroom for a look at the NYC rock scene at the time and how much the Strokes were swallowed up by that hype. They were on magazine covers (remember magazines?), with SPIN featuring an that had five different covers, one for each member of the Strokes. Drummer Fabio Moretti was dating Drew Barrymore. There were lots of drugs consumed. 

And they made more albums that sounded like the Strokes and sold OK but were somehow just uninspiring. There were releases in 2003 and 2006 followed by a five-year break, and then albums in 2011 and 2013. Their last album was in 2020, although reportedly they're working on a new release with Rick Rubin. Casablancas has released solo albums, as has Hammond (I really enjoyed his 2018 album Francis Trouble more than anything I've heard from the Strokes in the last 20 years). I will admit I haven't dug deep into the post-Is This It Strokes catalog, but I have heard most of the singles and they just didn't do it for me. 

Hey, sometimes a band's first album is their best. There's no shame in it. Is this it? Yeah.