Each day in December, I’ll be reflecting back on a song from the 2000’s. The decade saw the return of post-punk and the popularization of folk music, all while some of music’s biggest acts gained their indie footing. Thankfully, it’s a period that I can look back at fondly without cringing. #31DaysOf2000sSongs
I discovered Is This It and the garage rock-drenched world of The Strokes on I-80 East, the freeway that connects S.F. to Lake Tahoe. I was in my high school buddy’s beat-up car with our ski gear on top and the tunes blasting from all sides of the rickety car. We talked about life, listened to old favorite bands of ours, and also relished some of favorite new ones, including The Strokes. Is This It was a tight, consistent album with many renowned post-punk revival anthems vying for our attention, including the title track, “Someday”, “Hard to Explain” and, of course, “Last Nite”. But one of the more underrated tracks on the album is the second to last song: “Trying Your Luck”.
I’ll take “Trying Your Luck” over any of the aforementioned classics any day. It was perfect mid-tempo malaise, perhaps the saddest, slowest song on the album. But it was genius in that The Strokes didn’t compromise their trademark sound in recording a song that some would say is extremely counterintuitive for the band. It still peaked and rocked. Casablancas’s distortion-soaked vocals go from somber to tortured as he launches headlong into the chorus, which is a perfect handoff for the song’s signature rhythm guitar riff and the iconic bass line. After all these years, “Trying Your Luck” is the one Is This It track that I look back at most fondly.
“I know this is surreal, but I'll try my luck with you. This life is on my side.”