The Strokes "Is This It" [2001]

Another embarrassing example of how America stumbled into the 21st century, New York rich boys slumming it in the Village known as The Strokes were to popular music what the George W. Bush administration was to competent governing. Shamelessly overhyped, this band was supposed to bring about a sort of second-coming of NY-garage rock culture; instead, the best The Strokes could do was become the second biggest disaster to befall Manhattan in 2001. Lazy, privileged, feckless, drab and unintelligible, it takes The Strokes' (good name, however -- although "The Beat Offs" would have better represented their sound and removed any ambiguous nod toward artistry) five members to manage to sound like a completely wussified power trio, and on "Is This It" Julian Casablancas unwisely decides to sing all his vocals through a tin can, or at least it sounds that way. Robbing white Top 40 radio of the previous 20 years was still not enough to generate more than one single from this band of punk poseurs, and as for the title, "Is This It" is clearly missing an "sh" in the last word, and it needs two exclamation points at the end.