Great album openers get the listeners to keep on listening. They can do this in any number of ways. Some openers set the tone by easing us in. Others jump right in and blow our minds from the very beginning. A great album opener isn’t an easy thing to create. More than a great song, it’s all about the sequence. Track 1 has to be the perfect starter. This month, I’m highlighting my favorites. #AlbumOpeningSongs
The first time I heard the debut album from The Strokes, I was riding up from S.F. to Lake Tahoe with an old high school buddy. We had nonstop tracks blasting in the car and fresh tracks waiting for us on the mountain. The music was cranked up to the point where you almost felt a little nauseous. And this was the album I’ll always associate with that trip. I’ve heard The Strokes described as the band that saved rock & roll. I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration either. When I heard that album, I had a feeling inside that all was good with rock music. That there was direction, an identity. And, of course, it all started with the title track.
“Is This It” is the thesis statement to the whole masterpiece that is one of the strongest debut albums of the decade. It wasn’t the biggest hit by any stretch. But it was the introduction to the raw, minimally produced garage sound that is The Strokes. This sound helped steer the New York concert scene in the early 2000s, and now there’s even a movie about it that documents the era when The Strokes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and others took command of the music scene. “Is This It” sounded vaguely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time.
“Oh dear, can't you see? It's them it's not me. We're not enemies. We just disagree.”