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.”