Okay, so I’m a little late on this one. But, there’s no fun for me in writing this review. I came to The Strokes late. Their rich kid aesthetic put me off for a few years, until I actually sat down and listened to their music. Rich kids or not, Is This It? was an amazing record, definitely deserving of all the accolades it received, and Room on Fire was a worthy follow-up, even if there were a few skippable tracks.
Then came First Impressions of Earth. There isn’t too much I need to say about this album other than that the album was pretty mediocre. There were some good songs, but most of the album was filler, with the Strokes attempting to do too many things at once while never doing what made them good in the first place. Namely, writing short, dirty, 70s style art-punk songs that channeled Television and The Velvet Underground in the best way possible.
Obviously the hope was that Angles would be different. The first single off the record, ‘Under Cover of Darkness’, helped me to think that the band realized the error of their ways and returned to what made Is This It? so great. Nope. Not even close.
Angles is pretty terrible, with only a few redeemable songs. While there are plenty of people who might argue that we should just listen to the band and not worry about the details, said people are obviously idiots who will enjoy any bullshit music fed to them. Recorded in fractured fashion, Julian Casablancas tracked his vocals in a separate studio then sent them to the rest of the band, Angles plays like a band that has lost it’s touch and has lost what made it special.
There are a couple of good songs, but most of the album is trash. ‘Under Cover of Darkness’ sounds like vintage Is This It? era Strokes, but there’s really not much past that that I find enjoyable. For some reason the band decided to ditch all their 70s punk influence, and grab onto 80s bands like U2 and Men At Work. This decision leads straight into train wrecks like ‘Machu Piccu’ and ‘Games’.
What’s really a shame is that this could’ve been a record that made people talk about why The Strokes were so good in the first place — for the right reasons. Instead this album feels fat and bloated, full of ideas that were never worked on enough to be good. As a result, I’m left wondering where the band that created awesome records used to be, and if the Strokes are just one of those bands who only had one good record in them.
Rating: 2 out of 5
On Repeat: ‘Under Cover of Darkness’
Straight Skipping: too many to name.
Check out the Strokes here.
