The album that started it all, from the garage rock revival to landfill indie, indie sleaze and all the rest. But none of that matters: this is simply a perfect 35 odd mins of music.
Among the many highlights are Last Nite with its insistent Motown backbeat and choppy Johnny Thunders-like guitar solo, Barely Legal, sounding like 1980s-era Cure fronted by a saucy Iggy Pop, and the jangly Someday with its hairshirt of vulnerability from a bad break-up.
While frontman Julian Casablancas (son of elite models founder john) drawls like Lou Reed through a busted intercom, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr do Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd proud as their sinewy chords intertwine to great effect on the angular The Modern Age and equally neurotic Alone, Together.
