“Last Nite” by the Strokes
Yesterday, I put on two albums I haven’t heard in a while: “Is This It” by the Strokes and “Dej Stijl” by the White Stripes. I first heard both these albums in 2001. The Strokes released theirs in that year, Dej Stijl came out in 2000 but I didn’t hear it until going back retroactively after the 2001 release of “White Blood Cells.” In fact, 2001 was pretty much the beginning of my love affair with music. From “Bleed American” by Jimmy Eat World to “In Search of…” by N*E*R*D to Jay-Z’s “Blueprint” and the eponymous debut from the Gorillaz, not to mention Radiohead’s “Amnesiac” and Daft Punk’s “Discovery”, 2001 signals, to me at least, the beginning of a modern classic age. Everything at that time seemed new and exciting and limitless. Probably it’s just my age that paints in that way— pretty much everyone elevates the music they listened to in high school— but 2001 was pretty awesome. Hell, Timbaland was still working with Miss E Elliott back then. It might be early to some, but this nearly-ten-year-old song is today’s Sunday classic.
