Arctic Monkeys Covered The Strokes’ ‘Is This It’, So All Your Dreams Have Now Come True
Alex Turner just wanted to be one of The Strokes.
When Alex Turner sang “I just wanted to be one of the Strokes” on the opening track of Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, he wasn’t lying.
The frontman and cowboy outfit enthusiast has waxed lyrical about his Strokes obsession for years now, saying in an interview with NME in 2011 that the New York band’s first album was one of his big inspirations when crafting the early Monkeys tracks.
“I remember I used to play that first album in college all the time, when our band was first starting,” he told NME. “Loads of people were into them, so loads of bands coming out sounded like them.
“And I remember consciously trying not to sound like The Strokes, deliberately taking bits out of songs that sounded too much like them, but I still loved that album.”
Clearly, his Strokes obsession is still raging. A couple of nights ago, the Sheffield outfit tore through a cover of seminal Strokes track ‘Is This It’ at a show in New York.
They stick fairly close to the original arrangement, with Turner doing his best to emulate Julian Casablancas’ wounded drawl. Needless to say, they pulled it off with aplomb. Watch it below.