Week of The Strokes

I decided to switch to one album or concert review a week so I could focus my efforts and give a more in depth review of things. So with that being said, there is a lot of good music left to talk about. This week I will be reviewing The Stokes- Comedown Machine.

     The Strokes are an American rock band from New York City that formed in 1998. Lead singer and songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, and drummer Fab Moretti started playing together while attending Dwight School in Manhattan. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture was a long time friend of Julian. When he was 13 Julian was sent to Le Rosey boarding school in Switzerland to improve his academic performance. While in Switzerland Julian met lead guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr., they formed a band together. Which was managed by Ryan Gentles who quit his previous job to manage the band. They sent a demo in to Rough Trade Records and that led to the release of The Modern Age ep. This started a major bidding war between record labels for the bands first full length.  They released Is This It in 2001 on RCA records to huge commercial success and critical acclaim. Some magazines even refer to this album as one of the best of the 2000's. They went on a huge globe spanning tour before writing and releasing Room on Fire in 2003. This album was successful but didn't  live up to Is This it. In 2006 they released their third album First Impressions of Earth to mixed reviews. Following this tour in 2006 they took a lengthy hiatus before beginning on their forth album. Angels was released on March 1st 2011 and brought in a very big change in sound for the band. The band kept write on trucking after Angles and started immediately working on its follow up. They never even did an official tour. Comedown Machine their 5th album will be released on March 26th 2013, but it is up and streaming on Pitchfork right now.

     The Strokes are known for a lot weird and quirky things being who they are, so I thought we could discuss some of those things for a second. Both Julian Casablancas and Albert Hammond Jr. were born with a silver spoon in their mouths so to Speak. Julian is the son of Elite Model Agency founder John Casablancas. Albert Hammond Jr. is the son of Albert Hammond who was a famous singer songwriter, producer, and hit maker. To prove that they weren't just riding on the coattails of their celebrity parents they had to work extra hard to make a name for themselves. Another very quirky weird thing is Julian's stage presence. He has this weird way of bantering with the audience that sometimes seems like its banter in slow motion. His singing style would definitely be called the mic huger. He doesnt' move around the stage at all he just stands there at his mic stand and holds on to it like there is no tomorrow. He doesn't have any stage antics he just lets his powerful rock god of a voice ring out there for all to be amazed by. I have personally gotten to witness both The Strokes and Julian Casablancas live so I have seen this first hand. The last thing that is important to mention is Angles the album that almost killed The Strokes. They took a hiatus following their 2006 tour and then started writing the album in 2009. However things were going very badly and out of frustration Julian Casablancas left and wrote a solo album. Out of fear that the album would sound too much like his solo album they wrote the album without him in the studio and had him record his vocals separately. Band relations were not doing very well. It also didn't help that it took an amazingly long time to master the album.
                                                  The Strokes new single All The Time.

     The Strokes started out as a very influential and important garage rock band, they brought garage rock back into the world. They continued that sound with Room on Fire, and even diving deeper into the creativity of that genre for First Impressions of Earth. Angels is where the real change came in. It changes everything we have come to know about The Strokes and takes a major step back into the 80's combining their old sound with crazy synthesizers. That's where Comedown Machine comes in continuing the 80's framework laid down by Angels and taking it further. Set the stage image yourself waking up one morning and you are in the heart of the 80's music scene. Synthesizers, jingle jangle pop, and weird as far as the eye can see. You fall in love with this world and want to bring it back to your world. Very much like the Nightmare Before Christmas but with synth pop. Well as far as I can tell this is what The Strokes did on both Angels and even more so on Comedown Machine. This is a very poppy album for the strokes. Another new thing it brings to the table is fun and dare I say happiness. One of the most intriguing and interesting things about The Strokes is there I'm miserable but I am the coolest person on the planet vibe that they usually put off. I dare you to find a performance video where Julian looks like he is having fun. This album sounds like they have embraced their new sound and unlike on Angles are having fun making music. Its by far their weirdest album and they have finally embraced the change that they started on Angels.
                                                            Last Night -The Strokes

     The album's opener "Tap Out" sets the stage for a what will a very 80's trip of an album. It hasthe type of zany guitar lines you could picture on a Devo album and the vocals float lightly above the jingly poppy feel the chorus. on "All The Time" one of two old school songs on the album it throws us back into comfortable Strokes territory, but not for very long as "One Way Trigger" rips that away to give us our biggest 80's moment on the album. This song is pretty much all synthesizers and high crooning falsetto but its catchy and its fun. "Welcome to Japan" is one of my favorites it adds a very funk feel to The Strokes by laying down some serious funk bass lines while Julian sings in his most seductive voice. "80's Comedown Machine" might be the meat and potato's of this album clocking in the longest time and having the most to say. It is driven by light piano and strings with vocals so soft it's like a whisper being laid down over the instruments. "50 50" is our second throwback song on the album really bringing the post punk feel back into play for the hardest rock song on the album. "Slow Animals" sees Julian back trying to seduce his way into our pants with the soft slow 80's ballad start before taking off a bit more only to get quiet again. "Partners in Crime" is a very familiar sound to those you who bought Julian's solo album, you might here influences from that a lot on here. However this album stays more on target and focused thanks too the rest of The Strokes. "Chances" throws the 80's ballad feel into overdrive and thrives on synthesizers and Julian's crazy high falsetto. On "Happy Ending" we get a little more driven 80's song with less ballad and more jingle hooks. The final track "Call It Fate Call It Karma" slows things down again to drift off to a peaceful end to your poppy 80s dream that was Comedown Machine.
 Here is the link to stream the whole album.
http://pitchfork.com/advance/48-comedown-machine/

     The Strokes may have aged a lot, got married, had kids, broke up with celebrities, or just gotten weirder, but they are still one of the most dependable bands in music today. They never stay the same for very long but they have yet to disappoint me. They may never reach the unattainable heights that was their debut, Is This Is, but they don't stop evolving, changing, and putting out awesome music.
Recommended Songs: All The Time, Welcome to Japan, 80's Comedown Machine, and Partners in Crime.

4/5 Stars

                                                       One Way Trigger- The Strokes