[Rough Trade, 2011]
As with a lot of people of my generation, I grew up loving the Strokes. 'Is This It?' was released when I was 13, and 'Room On Fire' when I was 15 and just beginning to find my musical feet. These two albums, especially the second, will always be on or around my stereo, as they form part of my musical history. And it wasn't just me - pretty much the whole world of music was thrown off its axis by the release of ITI, as it showed that, firstly, there was still a place for this kind of upbeat, grubby, genuinely exciting rock 'n' roll band in the public consciousness, despite them being surrounded by the likes of Travis and Starsailor. Any guitar band that was big in the UK around that time seemed to hold 'The Bends' up as the height of musical achievement. The Strokes and, ironically, Radiohead themselves changed all that, with the Strokes retreating to 60s-inspired garage rock and Radiohead exploring the more electronic end of the spectrum. Admittedly, both these movements have since gone massively off the rails, but I think 'mainstream' indie rock was, for most of the last decade, in a lot better shape than it was in the 1990s.
'Angles', the groups first album since the disappointing 'First Impressions Of Earth', had the potential to be a disaster. All five members have had extensive other work since the release of the last album, with 4 of them forming side projects or releasing solo albums. An article in Pitchfork from a couple of weeks ago did not fill me with much hope - it seems from the interview that the band aren't really back together properly, and are more just a group of musicians laying down a backing for Casablancas to record his vocals over. The opening lyrics, 'I'm putting your patience to the test', are bound to be interpreted as a sort of confrontationalism that wasn't part of their sound back in the day. The album was recorded in an angry environment, and this is a much angrier album than they've released in the past.
One of the trademarks of the first three Strokes albums was how they kicked in. All 3 start off with a quiet, rhythmic guitar part, before the rest of the band kick in with a clean, quintessentially Strokes-y riff that sets you off on the album so well that you could almost write them yourself from there on in. When Machu Picchu kicks in, it's obvious this is a very different album to anything the group have released before, with a similar kind of structure, but with a very different sound. The guitar tones and Casablancas' vocals have been shot through with an 80s disco vibe, leading to a very, very different overall sound. Many people have said how this album is a return to the Strokes of old, but in truth I can't imagine an opening that was less Strokes-y whilst still obviously following on from their previous releases.
Musically, it is all pretty different. Albert Hammond Jr.'s guitar parts have become much more complex and intricate over the last 10 years, which in theory is a good thing, but it means that they've carried on the 'wall-of-sound' approach of 'First Impressions Of Earth', not really giving the songs time to breathe. Part of the joy of songs like 'Someday' was the way they seemed to keep propelling themselves despite not really being that frenetic. Now Hammond can play fast, he does, which isn't a good thing. When they try to get as close as they can to the feel of 'Is This It?', they write some good songs, such as 'Taken For A Fool', but there are none here that would have made the cut onto either of their first 2 albums.
The best song on the album is 'Under Cover Of Darkness', the lead single and second track. It's more like the Strokes proper, albeit more like their hard-rocking 3rd album phase. A vaguely reggae-y lilt to the guitars gives off some of their vibe of old, feeling genuinely fun and bouncy, 'like a puppet on a string' (I'm still trying to decide in my own head whether that lyric is actually a Sandie Shaw reference or not). It's definitely the Strokes' best single since 'Reptilia', but, fundamentally, it sounds like they were actively trying to make a song in the same vein as 'Last Nite', and there is absolutely none of the effortlessness that made their debut sound so refreshing. It sounds like they've tried incredibly hard to make an album they didn't really want to make. The fact it was written by 5 different people, not really coming together shows in the disjointedness - not only does it not really flow at all, but I find the different parts of the songs don't really flow well into each other, especially on album closer 'Life Is Simple In The Moonlight' - the album really is the sound of a fractured band. They'd been away for 5 years, but that clearly wasn't enough - although they claim to have already started work on album number 5, I think it would be best for all concerned if they just waited until they genuinely wanted to make another one. They've all got other things to do, and they can all churn out imitations of their earlier work individually until then. Some of their solo stuff has been pretty good - try this and this - and manages to recapture for more of the spirit and feeling of The Strokes 1.0.
All this sounds like I'm really giving the album a bad review - I'm not. It is an enjoyable album to listen to. But it could, and possibly should, have been so much better. They're never going to release another album as refreshing as 'Is This It?', and it is impressive that they haven't just stayed in the framework of their first two albums, but I can't see this album really winning over anyone who has never heard any of their older stuff.
