“Which indie rock band’s 2001 debut album Is This It had its original cover art replaced in some countries due to nudity?” The answer is The Strokes. Their debut album was first released in Australia on July 30, 2001, before arriving in Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The international cover used Colin Lane’s photograph of a nude woman’s hip and bottom with a black leather-gloved hand resting on it.
For the American market, the photograph was replaced by an image of subatomic particle tracks in a bubble chamber. The back cover also changed to Jacques Carlu’s painting View of the Citadel on the Capitol. The cover alteration is often described as censorship, although accounts from the band and management said Julian Casablancas wanted the alternate image for artistic reasons, alongside concerns about conservative American retail resistance.
The Strokes’ release history also changed after the September 11 attacks. The American CD edition replaced “New York City Cops” with the newly written “When It Started,” while the American vinyl edition retained the original track. These regional differences mean that both the famous nude photograph and the bubble-chamber image are authentic Is This It covers.