The Strokes Albums (3)
'First Impressions of Earth'
Release Date 1/1/2006
Tracks 14
Label BMG
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Why would a comeback from one of the most-talked about rock acts of the 2000s arrive just after the holidays, when the music industry is usually still hibernating (or hung over)? Optimistically, they could be taking advantage of holiday money and gift certificates burning holes in the pockets of their fan base. Less charitably, they may be trying to avoid tougher competition later in the year -- or worse, just trying to bury the album altogether. With the Strokes and First Impressions of Earth, it's difficult to tell exactly what the motivation was, but by releasing it so early in 2006, it ends up not being just one of the year's first albums, but one of its first disappointments as well. To be fair, First Impressions starts out strong. "You Only Live Once" is everything a fan could want from a Strokes song, with a joyful melody, skipping rhythm, and cheerfully snotty lyrics. "Juicebox," meanwhile, moves from a bassline nicked from the "Peter Gunn Theme" to ragged grunge before landing on a soaring, plaintive chorus. Love it or hate it, the song has a boldness and creativity that is in short supply elsewhere on First Impressions of Earth. On the other hand, the similarly experimental "15 Minutes," a shambling mess of a ballad that eventually ignites into a rocker, is so odd that it ends up being more surprising than disappointing. That honor goes to the songs that sound like the band is just tracing over its own work -- and not especially well. Waiting for memorable hooks and lyrics to emerge from "Heart in a Cage," "Electricityscape," and other half-formed songs is a lot more depressing than the occasional failed experiment. Indeed, depression is a big theme on First Impressions of Earth; while jaded and bruised lyrical territory is nothing new for the Strokes, now they sound boring instead of just bored with everything around them. On "Ask Me Anything," an otherwise pretty ballad, Casablancas repeats "I've got nothing to say" so often that the listener has no choice but to believe him. There are a few bright moments: "Ize of the World" and "Razorblade" channel the bite of the band's older work without rehashing it entirely. At just under an hour long, First Impressions of Earth is nearly the length of the Strokes' first two albums combined. They used to be impeccable editors, both in the length of their songs and which ones ended up on their albums. Is This It was a debut album so solid that it felt like a greatest-hits comp; hints of reggae, soul, and '80s pop flavored Room on Fire without overwhelming it. Here, the Strokes indulge their every whim, and the result is their weakest album yet. It seems that less really was more with them, and now more is simply too much. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Unlike many bands that release notable debut albums and then take years to deliver a follow-up, the Strokes got Room on Fire out as quickly as possible after their lengthy tour for Is This It. Good thing, too; the two years between their debut and this album were long enough for the expectations for -- and the backlash against -- a new Strokes album to reach formidable proportions. And the Strokes sound like they have a lot to prove on Room on Fire, not to their naysayers, but to themselves. On the surface, the album isn't drastically different than Is This It, but it's not predictable. Instead of delivering an album's worth of "Last Nite"s, "Someday"s, and "NYC Cop"s, Room on Fire expands on their debut's off-kilter and complex tracks, like "Is This It?" and "Hard to Explain." The album's first single, "12:51," signals the Strokes' intent: its whistling, synth-like guitars and handclaps are undeniably catchy, but at first, the song seems to be searching for a structure. Eventually, though, it becomes sneakily addictive -- it's a stealth pop song. Likewise, the album opens with "What Ever Happened?," on which Julian Casablancas snarls "I wanna be forgotten/And I don't wanna be reminded" -- not exactly the likeliest start to what should be a triumphant second album from one of the most celebrated rock bands of the 2000s. In many ways, Room on Fire is the Strokes' bid to be taken seriously, which may be why they began this album with producer Nigel Godrich before returning to Is This It producer Gordon Raphael. To his credit, Raphael gives the album its own sound: it's brighter and fuller than Is This It's low-rent production. Room on Fire also has a distinct attitude. Is This It sounded effortless, but it's evident that a great deal of effort was put into Room on Fire. Yet the album's most crafted moments are its most exciting: "Automatic Stop," a playful, poignant look back at a love triangle, lopes along to a reggae beat (and features the witty lyrics "So many fish there in the sea/I wanted her/He wanted me"). "Under Control," an awkwardly gorgeous homage to '60s soul, is possibly the best Strokes song yet. Several songs recapture some of Is This It's exuberance; not surprisingly, they're the ones that the band wrote while on tour. "You Talk Way Too Much" revs on one of their most Velvets-y riffs; "Meet Me in the Bathroom"'s Motown-like bassline and shimmery guitars add some style to its underlying sleaze. However, the Strokes are a different band than when they recorded Is This It, and Room on Fire's best songs acknowledge that. There's a weariness lingering around Room on Fire like stale smoke, especially on "The End Has No End," a loop of a song about a nagging breakup that repeats its seemingly nonsensical title in a surprisingly affecting way. "Reptilia," meanwhile, sounds like a long night of partying turned sour. "Please don't slow me down if I'm going too fast," Casablancas wails (most of Room on Fire's distortion comes from his vocals, which give the impression that he's gargled with turpentine and brushed his teeth with steel wool for the past two years). The motif of moving too fast and not minding it winds through Room on Fire, reflecting its svelte 33-minute running time as well as the swiftness of the Strokes' career. This compressed feel, the precision of the band's playing and arrangements, and the way every song comes to an abrupt stop sometimes make the album sound too closed-off. Room on Fire's best moments fight against this tendency and suggest that the Strokes are continuing to grow, perhaps beyond what their listeners want from them. Some may gripe that it's never as good as the first time, but Room on Fire shows that even after all that happened to the Strokes, they can still surprise. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Blessed and cursed with an enormous amount of hype from the British press, the Strokes prove to be one of the few groups deserving of their glowing reviews. Granted, their high-fashion appeal and faultless influences -- Television, the Stooges, and especially Lou Reed and the Velvets -- have "critics' darlings" written all over them. But like the similarly lauded Elastica and Supergrass before them, the Strokes don't rehash the sounds that inspire them -- they remake them in their own image. On the Modern Age EP, singles like Hard to Explain, and their full-length debut, Is This It, the N.Y.C. group presents a pop-inflected, second-generation take on late-'70s New York punk, complete with raw, world-weary vocals, spiky guitars, and an insistently chugging backbeat. However, their songs also reflected their own early-twenties lust for life; singer/songwriter/guitarist Julian Casablancas and the rest of the band mix swaggering self-assurance with barely concealed insecurity on "The Modern Age" and reveal something akin to earnestness on "Barely Legal" -- a phrase that could apply to the Strokes themselves -- in the song's soaring choruses. The group revamps "Lust for Life" on "New York City Cops" and combines their raw power and infectious melodies on "Hard to Explain," arguably the finest song they've written in their career. Nearly half of Is This It consists of their previously released material, but that's not really a disappointment since those songs are so strong. What makes their debut impressive, however, is that the new material more than holds its own with the tried-and-true songs. "Is This It" sets the joys of being young, jaded, and yearning to a wonderfully bouncy bassline; "Alone Together" and "Trying Your Luck" develop the group's brooding, coming-down side, while "Soma," "Someday," and "Take It or Leave It" capture the Strokes at their most sneeringly exuberant. Able to make the timeworn themes of sex, drugs, and rock & roll and the basic guitars-drum-bass lineup seem new and vital again, the Strokes may or may not be completely arty and calculated, but that doesn't prevent Is This It from being an exciting, compulsively listenable debut when those are few and far between. [In light of the World Trade Center disaster, the track "New York City Cops" was pulled from the U.S. release]. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
