Is This It [CD]

Clocking in at 36 minutes, Is This It? packs it's perfect length with stellar songs that draw inspiration from all over the map. Among the many highlights are Last Nite with it's insistent motown backbeat and choppy johnny thunders-like guitar solo, Barely Legal, sounding like 1980s-era Cure fronted by a saucy Iggy Pop, and the jangly Someday with it's hairshirt of vulnerability from a bad break-up. While frontman Julian Casablancas drawls like Lou Reed through a busted intercom, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr do Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd proud as their sinewy chords intertwine to great effect on the angular The Modern Age and equally neurotic Alone, Together.  Tracks 1 Is This It2 The Modern Age3 Soma4 Barely Legal5 Someday6 Alone Together7 Last Nite8 Hard to Explain9 New York City Cops10 Trying Your Luck11 Take It or Leave It