"TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT" THE STROKES (2001)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

I’ve written before about my initial discovery of Is This It, The Stroke’s tour de force of a debut album. It was inside a friend’s car on a ride up to Lake Tahoe from S.F. It was the best album we heard on the way to our ski trip. The album was loaded with assurance that rock music was thriving. The unique way in which The Strokes took old school elements of garage rock and combined them with a post-punk outlook was brilliant. It was derivative, yet fresh, powering all the way through to the closer, “Take It Or Leave It”.

It’s one last track to kick you in the ass and onto the floor. Written almost like a finale on a concert set list, the song just flat out rocks. The guitars are manic and relentless – and Casablancas sings and screams in repetition like he’s drilling into our heads that we’re not paying attention. Look, no one ever said the lyrics were brilliant. But the juvenile approach captures the emotions just right. And that’s the genius of the album and what makes The Strokes, The Strokes. Sometimes it’s just exactly what you need.

“Leave me alone. I'm in control. I'm in control. And girls lie too much. And boys act too tough. Enough is enough.”

"Y CONTROL" YEAH YEAH YEAHS (2003)

For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.

Day 25

Coming up on another band that I discovered late. Being late to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs party, however, doesn’t feel like regret. Because once you arrive, all you think about is just the fact that you’re there. And being there is good. “Maps” might be the only song that I previously knew from the band. But after gravitating toward the band’s new album this year, I started making my way backwards in their catalog. I’ve loved everything I’ve heard so far. While many of their peers seemed to have a less diverse sound – think The Strokes and Interpol – Yeah Yeah Yeahs take a more divergent approach to exploring a variety of instrumental styles, tempos and themes. “Y Control” is a song where Yeah Yeah Yeahs switch into high gear, and I absolutely love it.

Every member of the band is going at full throttle here. Karen O sings with the swagger of a frontwoman who’s been doing this for a while. But this is from their debut album. Brian Chase’s drums are on a rampage of rhythm. And Nick Zinner’s guitar has undergone baptism by fire through a myriad of effects, distortion and a series of riffs that cut to the bone. I have no regrets discovering this song as late as I did. But what the hell was I thinking not going to the Japanese Breakfast / Yeah Yeah Yeahs tour that just passed through? Clearly, I wasn’t thinking at all.

“Oh so while you're growing old under the gun, gun, gun. And I believed them all. Well I'm just one poor baby 'cause well I believed them all.”