10 Most Controversial Album Covers Of All Time
5. Is This It - The Strokes (2001)
As the human race geared up for the new Millennium, seers predicted the arrival of the Y2K bug and elaborated on the inevitable anarchy and degeneration that would follow in its wake. But whereas this apocalyptic hypothesis proved to be false, what we got was actually much worse. 2000 was a year defined by Nu-Metal, a brash musical movement devoid of subtlety that triggered the prevalence of Limp Bizkit and ensured that, for a brief moment, Fred Durst became the new eras (pig-headed, crotch-fondling) spokesperson. Fortunately all was not lost. Five rich kids in tattered jeans had just taken up residence in New York and were about to ready rescue us all from this horrific rap-rock hell. Often hailed (rightfully so) as the saviours of rock n' roll, The Strokes sonic style harked back to the gyrating garage philosophy of The Modern Lovers and the tense guitar interplay of Television, alongside an apathetic drawl to rival that of Lou Reeds.
And it was The Velvet Undergrounds voyeuristic poetry-out-of-ambivalence that most influenced the lyrical style of Julian Casablancas. Swapping heroin for speed, Casablancas and co presented the world with eleven fast and frantic tracks, miniature odes to meaningless sex and continuous disillusion. The raunchy cover shared its records spontaneous sound and fascination with New York Citys sordid and gritty back streets. The product of photographer Colin Lanes perverted mind (and red-blooded masculinity), Is This It's cover art depicted his then girlfriend, post-shower, suggestively resting a leather-clad hand on her elegant rear-end.
Eager not to cause further offence after an initial outrage, the album was repackaged with a cover that displayed the collisions of subatomic particles. A reduction of The Strokes sex appeal, this replacement art nevertheless captured the chemical energy of the band; an explosive gang that vanquished the Nu-Metal vogue, provoking a chain reaction that still reverberates through the music scene to this day.