The Strokes "First Impressions Of Earth"
Well, the boys from The Strokes have graduated to stadium rock. The garage scene has passed. This new album shows that this band has matured. Still talking about relationships and the irony of losing your mind at a young age, Julian Casablancas has a much stronger voice on this album. He really gets into his grittyness and really let's loose. This album sounds more intense than any of their others. Both musically and emotionally. Real upbeat hard songs. Real quiet pretty songs. Quirky funky ska-ish tunes. And "artsy for the sake of being artsy" ones. I'd say half the sound is like the classic Stroke's albums but the other half has moved on and up. And yes, finally some jazz fusion from them (hell yeah, during "Vision of Division",is that an indian raga jam?)! There are also moments of hard rock jamming that I never heard them try before. The 2 guitars are working it. The drummer and bassist sound better than ever. Different elements of syncopation and dynamics that are unusual, but welcomed. Now I can hear how they say bands have ripped off some of their sound. But there are parts on this new album where the band is trying things that remind me of bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, the Sex Pistols, the Beatles, and U2 (all of which aren't bands they typically sound like). Jim Derogatis from the Chicago Sun-Times had a great description of the Strokes' current sound: extremely tuneful garage-rock minimalists with a sleek and streamlined sound capable of erupting into inspired bursts of controlled fury or taking subtle and unexpected detours into other genres. Yeh, what he said. But they still have a lot of soul and rock left in them. They tried a different producer on this (David Khane) of Sugar Ray fame (also add in Tony Bennett and Cher). I thought Sugar Ray? But this is what Julian (lead singer of the Strokes) had to say, "I think (Khane is) really cool. I think when you first meet him though, you can get caught in the façade. He has a very technical knowledge and he'll be very quick to casually spew it out. You might think he's just some serious slick hit-maker and that he doesn't care about music, but that's what he's all about: music. He cares about it so deeply that if you change a little part, and you're hurting the song, he'll cry." Another quote from J, ""We were figuring stuff out, but after three or four songs I was thinking in my mind that 'I can't believe we're finally sounding the way I want us to sound'." This album is good. If you liked the first two Strokes' albums then you will also like this one. It is growing on me. It's so short (like the last 2 albums!) I can relisten to everything quickly. Check it out.
5 out of 5 thumbs.