Strokes- Angles (2011)

An article in the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone features some new information about the Strokes' forthcoming album, now with a confirmed release date of March 22 via RCA. The album is tentatively titled Angles, and the first single from the ten-song LP will most likely be "Undercover of Darkness".

Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. tells Rolling Stone that the album title represents "what the record sounds like. It comes from five different people," meaning that all of the members of the band contributed to the songwriting process. Other song titles mentioned include "Life Is Simple", "Taken for a Fool", "Call Me Back", "Radio Minor Madness", and "Machu Picchu", which Rolling Stone describes as "a rough wall of jangle over a hip-hop grind, as if the Strokes are cutting a Jay-Z track via the Rolling Stones' Aftermath."

The majority of the album was recorded at Hammond's studio in upstate New York, following scrapped sessions with producer Joe Chiccarelli (White Stripes, the Shins). "Life Is Simple" is the sole surviving song from the Chiccarelli sessions.

The band has plans to tour later this year, but Hammond emphasizes to Rolling Stone that "we want to come back strong but slowly, so we can grow live and also make new music. We want to release albums quicker."

"Call Me Back"

"No, really, everyone who bought that first album. Please. Anyone?"

*crickets*

i wonder if it will feature angular guitars

"Life Is Simple"

But hard to...I'll stop.

The only dude I trust to come up with a great hook is Hammond, but I say that and think in the back of my head how is solo album was such absolute shit. Casablanca's was merely, barely OK. I'm not sure what's going on with these dudes... they're all hooked out.

well I'M EXCITED

ten-song LP

hopefully around 30 minutes and tolerable

Thing is, when Is This It came out and all the press heralded the album as saving rock and roll... what actually changed?

who cares

need more songs about pokemons tbh

I'm looking forward to hearing this, looks like I'm the only one around here though. I actually liked the last one, it was kind of fun digging the gems out of the pile of coked-up excess. I'm fairly confident a concise, 30-minute disc by these guys can still be good.

Tbh, I thought Ned was above the easy needling like that.

democracy is usually bad,

As long as we're not below the needling.

Just surprised to see Ned tossing off easy zings like he was in the good squad itt.

ugh, "goon"

the album title represents "what the record sounds like. It comes from five different people," meaning that all of the members of the band contributed to the songwriting process

whoaaaa that's deep shit

Never break the chain.

The Strokes still get a reflexive 'yeah RIGHT' from me ten years on, I admit, but now it's more like 'wait...you're still trying? really?'

Because they never really seemed to succeed, did they? Not on the level they appeared to be aiming for. So yeah, cheap shots, but I stand by the belief that they were a failed boy band in the end.

I guess I'm just not used to Ned's snarky side!

Anyway, I think The Strokes not living up to "success" was more the media's fault than theirs. I mean, no band was ever going to live up to that "SAVIORS OF ROCK" bullshit. But, I mean, here they are headlining festivals like Lollapalooza and Coachella a decade on, so they must have done something right.

Quite right. They didn't die.

They were a terrific boy band, and I've never known a boy band that boasted great haircuts, to be honest, unless we count the Beatles and Monkees, and why not.

Christ, Alfred, there was more an actual dynamic between those doofs in the Libertines than there was between the Strokes.

I don't know, I never really bought into the criticism of "rich boys playing dress up". I mean, sure they had connections, but a) its not like they were the first band to take advantage of such and b) they had some great tunes on the first two albums that made all that stuff irrelevant in my mind anyway. Not that I'm going to convince you otherwise, but I think you're overly dismissive and picking out easy criticism that was mostly beyond the band's control. Sure, hate the music, fair play, but a lot of what went wrong with their expectations (and failure to live up to them) was beyond their control anyway.

The Libertines were my favorite boy band of the early 2000's!

This is It, excellent 30 minutes on the treadmill at 4.5 mph with the "rolling hills" option.

Which is to say: I agree with most of your essay, Ned, but because they're a boy band the Strokes' ephemerality never bothered me.

If I had to be vaguely generous it's that they turned out to be the John the Baptists of the decade's scene-as-such, but then outstripped by a slew of stuff in their wake, or well positioned to take advantage of it (the White Stripes in a nutshell, really).

the Strokes' ephemerality never bothered me

Honestly they had pretty much slipped my mind entirely until the Coachella headlining mention.

Little-known fact: The second Strokes album is better, top to bottom, than the first.

Not that you'd hear anyone ever say so, because folks were too busy backlashing to actually give it a good listen.

That said, the third album was awful and I have very little interest in whatever's next.

(Also, I thought Hammond's first solo album was excellent, but his second was ... not. Never heard Casawhatever's.)

Julian's had some moments. I liked Hammond's Guided by Voices cover.

Little-known fact: The second Strokes album is better, top to bottom, than the first.

It's so rarely asserted that you'll find six hundred threads here devoted to this fact.

if the strokes had continued to release albums w/ the same quality as the first two, I think they'd have decent stature in 2011, like, if there were 5 pretty good strokes albums right now, even if they sounded pretty much like the first 2, they wouldn't be considered a failure. they stopped being good at what they did and stopped doing it. the shtick didn't fail them.

cf. spoon, white stripes

fwiw, i don't think Spoon has a "schtick" like these other two bands

^I used to think that, then Spoon released like four more albums^

who would've thought that a band's press people would lie in order to make their music seem bigger and/or significant than it actually is! who do those people think they are?

^I used to think that, then Spoon released like four more albums^

I think Spoon has pretty clearly evolved over time.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5066/sppom.jpg

and i think Kill the Moonlight is when they really started to take off. their peak being Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga of course.

you're close. it's Gimme Fiction

That Spoon graphic is otm ... although I tend to reach for Telephone more than Sneaks

julian's recent solo stuff was strong so looking forward to hearing this

billstevejim OTM

julian can still write a hook like a motherfucker but he's such a bad lyricist now

i know ppl will be all "when was he ever a good lyricist lol" but on the first two albums he was at worst kind of a non-entity lyrically & at best he could be pretty elementarily poignant about relationships (i.e. "12:51") -- now his songs are all like nonsensicle ramblings about the elements & shit

I think he does some intentional stupidification of his lyrics less he be taken seriously. sometimes he overdoes that.

i think marriage ruined him as a lyricist

You Only Live Once is their best song since the first album IMO.

you could convince me of that -- the demo is great too

kinda looking forward to this as i liked casablancas solo album quite a lot. hes still got it. hopefully thats still there when hes in a room with the rest of the strokes.

If I had to be vaguely generous it's that they turned out to be the John the Baptists of the decade's scene-as-such, but then outstripped by a slew of stuff in their wake, or well positioned to take advantage of it (the White Stripes in a nutshell, really).

This is the correct interpretation.

I also get the feeling that the Strokes and a lot of what came after them were a much bigger deal in the UK both critically and commercially than they were in the US?

yes, very much so

no one cares about 'cool' guitar rock bands like that here -- even the yeah yeah yeahs, who are by all means a pretty huge success story, are at least doubly as popular in the uk than they are here

exhibit A, up until two years ago at least, would be kings of leon, who were barely a blip in the us w/ their first three albums while being one of the biggest bands in the uk

i was excited about this all the way until it mentioned jay-z

although i guess infinity on high was the best thing he has been involved in for the past 5 years

I don't think Kings of Leon count as a "cool" rock band in the Strokes/YYYs sense. I mean, look at them! They fit a longstanding Brit tradition of bellow-along pub rock though - Kings of Leon sit more naturally with Oasis and the Stereophonics than they do with anyone mentioned on this thread.

they were a bit cooler when they came out though.

or seen as being a bit cooler at least.

yeah i think around like 05 or w/e when their second album came out, i feel like the nme (which would be the extent of my engagement w/ the british music press, to be fair) was positing them as like this cool, exotic southern rock & roll band

they ended up ditching that whole image for the oasis arena thing tho, yeah

if the strokes had continued to release albums w/ the same quality as the first two, I think they'd have decent stature in 2011, like, if there were 5 pretty good strokes albums right now, even if they sounded pretty much like the first 2, they wouldn't be considered a failure.

like Tom Petty?

i was excited about this all the way until it mentioned jay-z

although i guess infinity on high was the best thing he has been involved in for the past 5 years

― "70th" "voter" "badger" (a hoy hoy), Thursday, 20 January 2011 11:13 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it doesnt actually say he's involved tho does it?

thank fuck.

Will say that by recording a fourth album so relatively soon, they are stepping outside of the Knack trajectory. Points for that.

hah, actually, the knack dropped their 4th 12 years after the first album instead of ten like the strokes. they just bust out their first three in 3 years where the strokes took six.

This actually got radio play at my college station in early ' 91:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HBBX112NL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pir69Od-y0s

apparently the single was their second highest-charting AOR hit behind "Sharona"!

hope for julian and the boys

Produced by Don Was.

they turned out to be the John the Baptists of the decade's scene-as-such, but then outstripped by a slew of stuff in their wake, or well positioned to take advantage of it (the White Stripes in a nutshell, really).

This is the correct interpretation.

― Matt DC, Thursday, January 20, 2011 3:09 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

i get that the strokes broke before the white stripes, and that if it hadn't been for their success, white blood cells might never have received a major label release, "fell in love with a girl" might not have got a gondry lego video, jack & meg might not have gone on to record something as ambitious as elephant, etc. but it's hard to say. the white stripes had done an awful lot of work building up their popularity and word-of-mouth by that point, at least in the US.

i'm not really trying to shoot down the john the baptist analogy, but i'd be more inclined to describe the strokes as the canary in the "real rock" coal mine.

Nah This Is It and White Blood Cells came out within a few weeks of one another, but it's not White Blood Cells that's the key record here, it's Elephant.

I remember them both getting massive praise at exactly the same time.

both the stripes and the strokes seemed to drop the ball after they made it big. well, the stripes made elephant after all the joint nme hype (the strokes just seemed to shy away from it all rather than come out with something that would make them even better/bigger), but neither built great back catalogues (not including the non-stripes stuff jack white has done obv) how they could have.

i don't have anything positive to say about the strokes, but re: spoon -- why anyone would reach for the faux-pixies telephono instead of, say, the brilliant pop songcraft of girls can tell, the wonderfully deconstructive transference, or anything in between (all great) is fucking beyond me

telephono is basically garbage; a series of sneaks is where they actually made good on the pixies-lite thing; and girls can tell is where they actually found their voice and got interesting and worthwhile

nooooooooooo I really really thought this band was gone forever

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I don't know what brilliant pop songcraft is anymore.

I wouldn't go so far as calling Telephono "garbage", but it definitely is nowhere near as satisfying as pretty much everything they've released since. I just don't get the argument that the band has always sounded the same. Anyone who has heard Telephono, Girls Can Tell, Gimme Fiction, and Transference and can't hear a difference might need to get their hearing checked.

Ah Dan, you are a voice of sanity.

wanna help me steal and burn all physical copies of this, as well as every computer its songs get downloaded to

Of all the bands to get that riled up by, these guys? Really? Iirc, Kings of Leon are still getting massively hyped as the savious of rock and roll too.

kings of Leon are so much worse

I'll always have a soft spot for the first two strokes albums (college!), but don't care if they make music ever again

I would rather listen to Kings of Leon on repeat for hours than listen to 30 seconds of any Strokes song that isn't the instrumental of "Hard To Explain".

Julian Casablancas is one of the worst performers in the world and each and every one of you should feel ashamed for making him think he's done anything worthwhile in his musical career.

His singing is the aural equivalent of ripping the face off of a Gerber baby.

I would rather listen to Kings of Leon on repeat for hours than listen to 30 seconds of any Strokes song that isn't the instrumental of "Hard To Explain".

u mad

(lol I don't think I realized I still despised The Strokes this much)

It's okay – I feel the same about Alicia The Keys.

thrilling passions on the loose itt

His singing is the aural equivalent of ripping the face off of a Gerber baby.

― Indolence Mission (DJP), Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:24 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

vivid!

I would rather listen to Kings of Leon on repeat for hours than listen to 30 seconds of any Strokes song that isn't the instrumental of "Hard To Explain".

Julian Casablancas is one of the worst performers in the world and each and every one of you should feel ashamed for making him think he's done anything worthwhile in his musical career.

this is insanity. the strokes are, at worst, boring and uninspired. I understand ryde at em but actual venom seems pointless

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTYEv28ZI7-Qkl7I9NWaNTzRfanTdzFQ16c2bTdMSZA6sdwm_tUXw

I missed the last bus, I'll take the next train
I try but you see, it's hard to explain
I say the right things, but act the wrong way
I like it right here, but I cannot stay
I watch the TV; forget what I'm told
Well, I am too young, and they are too old
The joke is on you, this place is a zoo
"You're right it's true"

But, you know, lol at anyone that really listens to the first two records for the lyrics.

boring and uninspired + overbearing, unending hype from people who know better = a reaction eerily similar to lex's reaction to My Dark Beautiful Twisted Strange Unforgivable Naughty Transgressive Self-Flagellating Fantasy

(not saying people are hyping this new record, but rather that the memories of 10 years ago are way fresher than I could have possibly imagined)

boring and uninspired + overbearing, unending hype from people who know better = a reaction eerily similar to lex's reaction to /My Dark Beautiful Twisted Strange Unforgivable Naughty Transgressive Self-Flagellating Fantasy/

makes sense I guess. the first one is so inextricably tied to a place and time for me that the furthest it'll slip in my regard is to "corny enthusiasm of a 20yo"

I'm actually struggling to cope with the fact that it was 10 years ago.

Looking forward to this. Haters be damned!

("Not Angles, but Anglophiles.")

are there more lolz to come itt or should i remove bookmark now?

I agree that in the middle of the horrible 3rd album, "only live twice/I'll try anything once" was great. on JC's solo there were also a few ok/good songs (left&right, glass and tourist) and a lot of shit.
anyway, not particularly excited by this but I'll listen to it and I guess there'll be a least a couple of songs I'll like...
(and yeah, 10 years since "is this it" is a bit depressing !)

oups. "only live once" !

Little-known fact: The second Strokes album is better, top to bottom, than the first.

Not that you'd hear anyone ever say so, because folks were too busy backlashing to actually give it a good listen.

― alpine static, Thursday, 20 January 2011

The british press weren't. NME 9/10 Q mag 5/5 to name but 2 (wrong) reviews.

i don't have anything positive to say about the strokes, but re: spoon -- why anyone would reach for the faux-pixies telephono instead of, say, the brilliant pop songcraft of girls can tell, the wonderfully deconstructive transference, or anything in between (all great) is fucking beyond me

telephono is basically garbage; a series of sneaks is where they actually made good on the pixies-lite thing; and girls can tell is where they actually found their voice and got interesting and worthwhile

― ilxor, Thursday, 20 January 2011 15:07 (5 hours ago)

I don't really know what to say to this except I disagree almost completely. To me, Telephono and Sneaks have the fuzzy, fucked up sound I love out of Daniel ... songs start and end abruptly, almost like you're listening in while he experiments ... and yet his knack for melody breaks through over and over again.

Faux-Pixies on Telephono? Well ... sure, maybe. But I don't care. Telephono = garbage? LOL.

I think Girls Can Tell is very, very good, too. Kill the Moonlight is where the decline begins. In my mind, everything* since Girls has just been rehashing the same tired sound. All the edge is/was gone. Moonlight's OK. Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Blah Blah Blah are total snooze-fests. I mean, I dig "Sister Jack," but the second half of Fiction is DOA.

*I should say that I actually like Transference (it didn't make my top 10 or 20, but probably would make a top 50) because I feel like it's at least somewhat of a return to that older, fucked up sound in places ... and didn't I read that this was the first one the band made without Mike McCarthy since the first two? I think there's a direct correlation there. No McCarthy = Daniel gets to indulge his weirder tendencies. That's a good thing.

need more songs about pokemons tbh

― normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Thursday, January 20, 2011 3:06 AM (18 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.soonermusic.com/insider

man the fact that my brief mention of spoon was enough to turn this into 'rank spoon's discography' def shows how much people care about the strokes in 2k11

01 Machu Picchu
02 Under Cover of Darkness
03 Two Kinds of Happiness
04 You're So Right
05 Taken for a Fool
06 Games
07 Call Me Back
08 Gratisfaction
09 Metabolism
10 Life Is Simple in the Moonlight

I'm sure that if there was no hype 10 years ago over 'Is This It', The Strokes would be considered today 'the most well kept secret of rock 'n roll' or some crap like that. Even Ned would agree with that.

ticklin the bear

tho secretly i kind of agree---if they'd released the first two albums only and barely made waves, they might be a sort of interesting/not-terrible find down the road.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/thestrokes-codysmyth.jpg

omigod they're not drinking anymore

or consulting stylists

http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/news/listen-strokes-comeback-single-under-cover-of-darkness-clip

1. It sounds Strokesy, so whatever.
2. This is the single's cover art. Note the pre-distressed look that simulates a record sleeve from 30 years ago. (Also note: it's OVERDONE. All good things in moderation.)
3. If it's a single, would a paper sleeve get ringwear like that? A cardboard sleeve maybe, but a paper sleeve is far less likely to suffer that fate.

http://98.142.208.250/~newdiy/images/uploads/ucod600.jpg

hey, this sounds pretty good!

yah def reminds me of the first album's cover-art. i always thought the 3rd albums was a weird departure, art-wise, from the 1st two which obviously had a trend going on w/ emphasis on geometry. this sorta revives it, like a symbolic return to their "old" sound.

the fact that it sounds strokes-y is an important development considering how the stuff off the last album sounded

xp I refuse to consider the American cover of the first record its official cover, so I'd say there was no common thread among the three albums so far.

im in the extreme minority that really dug the 3rd album, how variant it's sound was song to song. i'm still in disagreement w/ p. much everything critics had to say about it not working... the nostalgia jig could only be done for so long.

xpost

Entirely forgot about that one, yerr right.

the further away it gets from the third album, the more i think that the album was, in fact, just some bullshit

aside from "you only live once" obv

oh man its the strokes in 2011 and they're sounding like they always have, why is this a thing

guys should send phoenix a thank-you bouquet that this song doesn't sound purely like premature 2001 nostalgia

If vocal harmonies are their new thing, that's enough to get my attention. I'm not sure why they avoided them in the past.. since all of them released solo albums obviously they can at least hit the right notes.

sounds like generic-not-particularly-interesting strokes...
not excited.

hey this is pretty good. chorus is really winning.

good guitar solo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwxcQvB_vcQ

not as terrible as i expected

I like it and am still very much looking forward to the full-length.

Absolutely love everything about this song. It's really nice to have them back.

Unremarkable and overdone yet still makes me excited to listen to it. Will probably be one of those albums which I would never consider seriously for a year end poll yet it ends up playing in my stereo all summer long.

Is there a name for this sort of attitude? One night stands albums? I had the same thing with The Black Keys album last year, loved to hear it on summer as but wouldn't really recommend it to any discerning music lover.

Ummm....this kinda rules. Am I hearing sax or overdriven guitar? I hope it's sax. (Poor stream quality...can't decipher.)

"guys should send phoenix a thank-you bouquet that this song doesn't sound purely like premature 2001 nostalgia"

Ummm...more like Phoenix is PAST DUE on their thank you to the Strokes for the total rip off that was "It's Never Been Like That"! (I do like both bands actually, but let's not revise history.)

It is kinda funny though the cyclical nature...Strokes rip off VU > Phoenix rip off the Strokes > Strokes re-rip off VU with a newly added touch of 50's skronk and end up somehow sounded post-Phoenix! If this ends up in an iTunes promo, please kill me!

IT'S NICE TO HAVE THEM BACK I WELCOMED THEM

xp wrong about the Strokes ripping off VU, can we leave that behind? Their version of NYC is more Television-meets-Billy Joel...

it's weird that ppl always say VU and television and etc when the song that put them on the map was an *actual* xerox of a famous tom petty song

anyway i like this quite a bit

i'm wondering if this album is a "return to the strokes sound" or if this song is the one the label felt would appeal the most to established fans and the rest is different?

Can someone pinpoint me to the exact VU song(s) which remind them of the Strokes? I've never made the connection... always found them more similar to bands like say Television or the Modern Lovers... maybe even Buzzcocks or the Stooges... not VU.

eh ive always thought they sounded like the smiths covering foggy notions

or the modern lovers

actually i saw 'em open for doves before i knew who they were and the smiths was my first thought

I think 'actual xerox of a famous tom petty song' is a case of really reaching, confession from J-Caz or no, but I will say that in '76/77 there was a lot less (perceived & actual) difference between Tom Petty and Television (or Modern Lovers, or Cars, or Blondie) than you would nowadays guess...

yeah i mean ppl have def. pointed out before that the nme hallelujahs seemed kinda predicated on the british rock press orgasm of a collision b/w some ineffable nyc downtown pretty boy cool w/ english jangle pop

I will say that in '76/77 there was a lot less (perceived & actual) difference between Tom Petty and Television (or Modern Lovers, or Cars, or Blondie) than you would nowadays guess...

i know xhuckx has always said petty was marketed as "new wave" for time

also the cars

IT'S NICE TO HAVE THEM BACK I WELCOMED THEM

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 9, 2011 2:37 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

I really like this. First play I liked it a bunch, second play I sort of love this.

well... is this it? that's what they 'landfill indie'? oh, that is a british thing.

Ummm...more like Phoenix is PAST DUE on their thank you to the Strokes for the total rip off that was "It's Never Been Like That"! (I do like both bands actually, but let's not revise history.)

My point is that if Phoenix didn't keep this sound popular this song would sound like pure "hey remember This Is It?" nostalgia even more than it already does.

who the heck is phoenix

But is Phoenix really that big of Strokes biters, croupier?

Also: does anyone else thinks the chorus to Razorblade sounds like Oh Mandy? Everytime I listen to it I feel the urge to sing manilow instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zupM3YW4xzc

xp to da croupier: ehhh think you're wrong. Wasn't only 1901 biting from the Strokes; Since You've Been Gone or Hot & Cold has been using this sound as well...

http://www.rhythmism.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=25898&stc=1

since you've been gone is five years old (and more Interpol than Strokes), and I don't recall "Hot'n'Cold" being a two guitar pop-rock shuffle

The Phoenix comparison makes even less sense to me than the VU one.

I can see how 1901 is sort of like a way tricked-out 12:51

referring to Hot n' Cold's metronomic-precise yet forceful pop-rock production, which I'm assuming Dr. Luke learned from SYBG

I read somewhere that SYBG was a New York indie homage, which could very well mean Interpol, but I read as 'Strokes' (Interpol being another band to keep the Strokes flame alive, ty)

long distance call on a blown speaker would sound like a room on fire cut

thanx now I want to listen to that whole album plax...

referring to Hot n' Cold's metronomic-precise yet forceful pop-rock production, which I'm assuming Dr. Luke learned from SYBG

i can hear how katy came from kelly who lifted from early '00s NY crossover rock, but saying Katy's disco (seriously, re-listen to the track) has kept the strokes sound alive as much as a group that delivers overlapping guitar parts, a brisk rock beat and half-comprehensible slurred vocal hooks is pretty absurd

someone answer my fucking question

Phoenix is a city in Arizona.

GAPDY poll

gbx they are a alternative band from france!

the song that put them on the map was an *actual* xerox of a famous tom petty song

It really wasn't, and I wish this meme would die. Aside from the four bars of octave notes at the beginning -- which by themselves don't even "xerox" Petty, as the keys are a whole step a part, and the Strokes do straight quarter notes while Mike Campbell does a dotted eighth note pattern --the melodies and chord progressions are not even close to the same thing.

American Girl -- Verse: I - II7 - IV - V x2 V - I - IV - ii Chorus: V (8 bars) IV - V - I - vi - IV - V - I

Last Night -- Verse: I - ii - V - vi - ii x 3 Chorus: IV - V x 4

CARBON COPIES THEY ARE!

What's more, the opening octaves of the Petty song are over the I chord (D) for 12 bars, with the only harmonic motion coming from the bass; while the Strokes do it over an alternating IV - V (F-G) pattern from both guitars and bass until the verse comes in.

I think it's amusing enough that the song that heralded the righteous return of bad-ass rock was, at the very least, oddly reminiscent of an early Tom Petty bash

though vocally it's more like something Iggy would have sang on Tom Snyder

automatic stop is my favourite strokes song btw

bad-ass rock

When was this ever used to describe the Strokes?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The%20Strokes

definition #5!

kick-ass =/= bad-ass

And all of those top definitions actually make them sound like a boy band.

the strokes ARE a boyband silly!

yeah um I thought it was a truism that the Strokes were an exceptionally shrewd boy band.

i thought fabrizio was the cutest!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxn7muXv1p1qb222oo1_400.jpg

^^^^ the Lance Bass of the Strokes.

Haha, with this and The Streets' new album, it's like February 2011 is the start of the 2001 revival.

Yeah but the Streets album has all of two kinda good-to-good songs.

I heard about this wild new band from Sweden named The Hives. You guys are gonna love 'em.

Well I've never actually met any girl who loves them in a preppy sort of way so I honestly had no idea they were pretty much a well... a shrewd boy band. Makes sense.

And frankly some of them are way better looking than say, Brandon Flowers, who I've never understood as a sex symbol. He's pretty generic looking and he's a mormon. Mormons are not rockist or sexy at all. No sex, no alcohol, no cigars and awkward underwear? I'll pass.

idk the underwear is kindof hot

feel like valensi stopped understanding the strokes brand around the end of room on fire and they should really just kick him out of the band. he looks p terrible now anyway.

not sure how new this is but he looks like joan cusack in school of rock

http://static.nme.com/images/article/NickValensiStrokesPA270111.jpg

Haha, with this and The Streets' new album, it's like February 2011 is the start of the 2001 revival.

Avalanches follow-up soon too. DEFINITELY.

Flowers has admitted to smoking and drinking plenty, and his awkwardness -- the unambiguously straight guy who wishes to hell he was a swish -- was, briefly, kinda charming.

oh come on he is just your type

lol is that a Strokes band member? Wow you weren't kidding, they ARE a boy band, but you know with instruments. Duran Duran, then?

His hair looks so much better than mine.

oh come on he is just your type

His song is Liza Minnelli's "Losing My Mind."

i was so in love w/ them in their inlay card pictures for is this it

Are you a girl plax(ico)?

The Conor McNichols quotes in this dont really do the strokes any favours.

band member quotes are just as bad

except for nick's confusion over why they are popular, liked that bit.

that was good. the bits about 'living too fast' (apart from when they admit its corny as fuck) was not.

i am looking forward to hearing this new album though.

Wait, is that the actual album cover? An MC Escher-ized Q*bert board sitting on a crossword puzzle? Seriously?

It looks like an old Stereolab cover or something - I like it.

Perhaps the past few years have mellowed him.

i wonder if i could count how many times ppl have thought i was a girl on ilx?

itunes accidentally leaked the snippets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0iiY4dWeD8&feature=player_embedded

wow some of those are pretty rad

can't decide whether i like the total embrace of the 80s tho. 3:30 or so? holy god.

this is actually a pretty good way to preview an album btw.

how? don't see how it's anymore effective than just releasing some A-sides, 1 or 2.

The single is beyond horrible.

sounds a lot like Julian's solo album dunnit?
You're So Right is just River Of Brakelights only not as good.

Listening to "You're So Right" now and it just further cements my opinion that The Strokes have the worst drum sounds (whether real or programmed) in all of rock music. I think that's half the reason I'm so ambivalent about whatever they do.

Weird, I couldn't disagree more. Especially like the stuff that is real but sounds programmed.

Yeah I love the production on the 1st 2 recs but you can't think of it as exemplary "rock" production.

idk what any of you are talking about are they still cute tho i mean lets talk about whats real here. valensi still has that stupid haircut tho right ugh

wish they had dorian greyed themselves with the is this it inlay card

i don't really like the new song

it's a b-side but yeah I can't imagine anyone wanting to listen to this

kinda funny cuz the b-side for "jukebox" ("hawaii") was one of the few great things they recorded during that time

sorry which track is a b side again?

"no you're right" or w/e it's called that they put out today?

hm but also track 4 on the album too according to the soundcloud with all the track samples on.

oh n/m

So now there's a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l09H-3zzgA

sheesh it's not that bad

OH - original hipsters

tho the chorus is way too overdone

o my god its been 10 years now, i remember myself back in 2001 brushing off the remnants of britpop and listening to everything what bore signs of a more experimental music. i was flirting with electronica around that time but i gave up to it as soon as i realized that the likes of autechre, boards of canada werent able to produce hooks good enough to compete with classics like "last christmas" Wham!. Fennesz was kinda close on "Endless Summer" though.

Yes, I still find myself humming "Happy Audio" at inopportune moments,

this new single is a 'grower' (really helps to NOT watch the vid)

Sounded really plodding and hookless on snl :/

First track on this sounds like Down Under by Men At Work but not as charming.

I really love the single but that SNL performance is really awkward to watch. It sounds fine but they all look like they just don't want to be there, it's quite sad.

Is there discussion somewhere about how the new single is such a howlingly obvious retread of "Last Night" that it borders on self-parody (and/or passive aggression, i.e., "Oh, so you fuckers liked our first record? Well, here it is AGAIN, jerks.")? Because I haven't been able to find it.

Is there a term for one-hit-wonders, but in application of just an album? Seems these dudes fit the bill... Is This It came in right at the perfect moment, but the guys are just treadin water now... music has def moved on. I mean it almost makes me a bit sad. It's like watching Duran Duran get back together again.

Big difference: the new back-to-our-roots Duran Duran album is actually good.

which album is that?

All You Need Is Now.

leaked.

"Maccu Picchu" is a nice opener. That's as far as I've gotten.

Half way through and I'm really wondering why they decided to make a new record.

Okay, after "Machu Picchu" (which I spelled incorrectly above), this album disintegrates into a total heap of shit. It's on par with the Aeroplane album from last year it's so bad.

reading that julian sent his vocals over email was not an encouraging sign

http://grab.by/9s21

note the ad lmao

need this indie, rock jacket so bad

It's interesting Duran Duran got mentioned earlier on this thread because Angles and the new Duran Duran album have quite a lot of similarities and I really like them both.

Saturday night live really was sad they seemed like men out of time

i'm wondering if this is the first album release from that early 00's band scene (yyys, stripes, strokes etc) to get a genuine kicking from the press; hatchet jobs etc. from what i've heard it deserves it. Johnny Fever is bang on with the Aeroplane reference.

I was just reading how they want to make a new album very soon as they were really unhappy making this one but I would take a bet that this will be their last album and Julian will be the main reason for that. SNL was really depressing to watch, none of them were into it apart from maybe Fab.

As for the press kicking it's had good reviews in Q and Uncut so far but I can see it getting very mixed reviews.

i thought they seemed kinda bemused on snl

sorta like "lol at the road we have traveled" sorta thing

The Vaccines' album wipes the floor with this in terms of melody, zest, fun, excitement.. the whole bit.

iawtc x1000

(though it doesn't really remind me of The Strokes at all, anyway)

don't understand the reactions to snl, thought they pretty much always looked bored. i mean a few of them smiled on snl, thought it was a breakthrough

umm there's a great descending hook in the chorus of "Taken for a Fool" -- the "I don't need anyone with me right now" part -- that I'm 98% sure is lifted from an XTC song ... I mention this in hopes that some XTC lover will come through here, recognize it, and identify what song it is, and then I will be like "yes, THAT'S the one" and it will stop nagging me

dunno if said yet, Spin gave their latest an 8/10
http://www.spin.com/reviews/strokes-angles-rca

not heard it yet - im waiting for the lp - but is it as disconected as some reviewers have made out to be? can you really tell that casablancas wasnt in the room and just had his vocals pro tooled on later?

Even more. It sounds like all five of them wrote/recorded the album on different continents.

Whole album streamz
http://new.thestrokes.com/featured/listen-to-angles-here

this is going in one ear and out the other, which is still a step up from the last album

okay 'metabolism' was so bad that I had to turn it off

Think they need to make an album like 'Head' next, this one clearly isn't it.

what, as in http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/001/342/0000134206_50.jpg ?

They could go that way, OR they could start buying songs from Neil Diamond.

And make a film that features Victor Spinetti, it'd be awesome.

i think these guys forgot how to rock

just sayin

this is pretty bad, it's so overproduced and clunky

the SNL video is pretty funny, these real "rock" lookin dudes slouching around menacingly and then they start playing and it's this little tiny twerpy song

like, stereolab would blow them off the stage

the SNL video is awful (julian is completely out of key) but I agree that they have always looked bored.

You can be 'off key' or 'out of tune' but you can't really be 'out of key,' fwiw just sayin'

haven't heard a note from this album, but am pretty sure that listening to a recording of my bowel movements would be more worthwhile

Wow it seems like I'm the only person on here that actually likes this album, but then I did think the last album had about 8 great songs on it.

How many people here wanted to like it but were disappointed? The problem is sorting out from those who love to hate the Strokes. I haven't heard it yet, was hoping it would be good, but don't have a good feeling, sigh.

You can be 'off key' or 'out of tune' but you can't really be 'out of key,' fwiw just sayin'

ahah, oh yeah, sorry ! he might have been both then !

He might have been off tune.

Just listening to this now. The first two songs are not my cup of tea, but track 3, Two Kinds Of Happiness is pretty cool.

i only listened to it once, but i liked it, thought it sounded like pretty typical strokes songs, and dig the wimpy, synthy bits.

reading that julian sent his vocals over email was not an encouraging sign

― J0rdan S., Sunday, 13 March 2011 20:42 (3 days ago)

dude can you link me to this. that's fuckin hilarioius

i found it. soooooo awesome

It's the Pitchfork piece, right? It's pretty amazing how critical Valensi and Casablancas are of the album. They don't even try to defend it.

So Angles gets 7/10 in this weeks NME, they're losing a mark with each album.

First Impressions scored higher than a 7/10 (or equivalent)? Kinda thought widespread consensus was that it was a pretty below-mediocre album

Yeah they gave First Impressions 8 and it featured in their top 10 albums of that year. I seem to remember that years list making it look like it had been a really awful year for music.

do people who put strokes albums on year-end lists even hear more than 10 albums in a year???

Important q.

even if I had only heard 10 albums that year I would find a way to not put first impressions on my list

xpost Were you ever a fan or do you just think they've really lost their way?

The first two albums are pretty solid and would have made my top 10's of those years and I'm sure I'd heard more than 10 albums each year. Putting the third album in their top was ridiculous, it's half a good album but as I mentioned that year's NME list is full of disappointing albums. If they found a place for the third Streets album then I'm not surprised they put The Strokes in.

Sure looks like a stampede to not like this album, me first! Actually it seems alright.

the quality of the stream isnt great so im gonna wait til it comes out properly. but its a bit too 80s at times i think, not strokesy enough. even the julian solo album sounded more strokesy. might need getting used to though.

it doesnt sound like a complete shitbag like some people are making out though. but then i liked old strokes.

^Er, I think everyone likes the old strokes. It's when they attempted to be progressive that they got a lot of shit from critics... w/ their attempt to redefine their sound, or at least modernize it. Ultimately they sort of lost touch with who they were (sorry if you cringed), and I think it's especially apparent on this latest album... if anything, it sounds regressive as their influences have now become v. obvious.

Like *this* were actually the album the band first came out with, when they were too embarassed too rock or insecure to really let go. iono, there are exceptions to the 1st-album rule but I can almost equate this to Radiohead's Pablo Honey... Nirvana-lite, as critics were fond of calling it. In this case, Diet R.E.M... or something.

I've always been lukewarm on The Strokes, but I can at least appreciate some songs on the first two records for kind of taking a sound and doing the most with it (though I still don't really get either the VU or Television comparions AT ALL). Now it's absolutely clear they're tearing down their own identity in a move to find a new one, but they're lost as fuck.

I thought the Television comparison was actually really apparent upon my first listening of Marquee Moon. Maybe less on the instrumental side... but I found Casablanca's style of delivery V similar to Verlaine's.

It's funny how they've released the most obvious 'Strokesy' song as the first single, when they (unwisely) went out of their way to do so last time around.

first honest review i've read in the press
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/17/the-strokes-angles-review

what's up with petridis' meth binge thumbnail there

anyway, good review

Agree. Almost signed up to comment on it, but didn't bother.

I love how apologists (for any band, not just of The Strokes and not just for this review) will rationalize about how you either SHOULD or SHOULDN'T review albums in a vacuum. If you cite public statements about making the album not being a good experience, then you're going in with preconceptions. If you don't cite any contextual details, you don't understand why the album might sound like it sounds. Petridis really couldn't win here, but I'm glad he wrote what he wrote.

Like, why in the world would reviewing an album be like writing a 4th grade book report? If you have contextual details at your disposal, use them. It's an album ffs.

yeah i mean also a newspaper like The Guardian has to include details or backstory printed elsewhere that general readers who are not mad fans of the given band might have missed. the G's comments board is the freaking worst in the world, seems constantly to be a home for fun-hating, angry, disenchanted tossbags.

the bit on NME I thought was totally unneeded, but this guy def hit upon every feeling I gained from listening to (a couple times) the stream up-thread. It's funny - that effortless cool has totally been forgone in name of this bizarre over-structuring whilst feigning little effort, which really more comes off as literally giving little effort. This concept makes more sense in my head.

@cphilp

How would you know it's a good album? It's not out yet. And while you may disagree with the review, you can't say it's terrible. Alexis Petridis is one of the best in his business.

Think we should lay off Petridis a few weeks' grace for rightly ripping it out of Conor McNicholas over the first couple of paragraphs.

the thing about this album thats the oddest is that for a band that talked about having good taste in that observer interview (where mcnichols sounded pretty stupid), they seem to have lost most of it on this album.

The boys are on the cover of the latest Spin, who also gave the album an 8/10. They look even more throat-punchable than usual on the cover, too. I guess it's fitting that the world's most irrelevant rock mag is still championing the world's most irrelevant pop stars. Match made in heaven. And hilarious.

The review is ridiculous, true - but Spin is, after all, a business... I've never tried to get too mad at mag covers b/c I know they need to be sensational to a degree. So long as they're being reasonable.... Oasis 3 times a year is not reasonable (see: Britain)

Not especially or as usually enamored of this one; too many superfluous complications (e.g. the first single has all those extra guitar runs). I like the last song the most (the second one they played on SNL).

ok so Machu Picchu is brilliant!

i love Machu Picchu, Taken for a Fool, Gratisfaction (dumb title aside), and Life is Simple

I've been listening to the album a lot today and suprisingly I like it so far ! much much (much) better than the previous one. I don't have a clear idea of all the tracks but my favourite ones for now are "games" (gtreat chorus and synth) and "life is simple" (lovely chorus). "metabolism" is awful and could have been on "first impression"...
feels good to listen to this album on a sunny sunday.

Gratisfaction sounds like the third single from a later Supergrass album.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15230-angles/ 'a glorified spit-balling session.. lurching fragmentation' nails it.

I really detest how much ego Dombal puts into his writing. The analysis was spot-on, but lines like

And the Strokes are too cool and too smart to become one of those bands that puts out a record every few years just so fans can sing the oldies back to them, right?

Everybody wants to quit while they're ahead. Some actually do it.

But on the sad-eyed and drum-less "Call Me Back", he's left to moan about how "no one has the time, someone's always late" against a single guitar and ethereal keyboard. Listening to the track, it's pretty easy to see why people may not be returning his calls.

Watch this hard-hitting journalism inseminate its way into the 6789263792694 subsequent reviews that will follow. I literally groaned. It's like... it's not even a step above, it's a handicapped bar-stool above a pun.

lot of rubbish on this album but i think that Life is Simple in the Moonlight is one of their best ever songs.

well, I like this album more and more. not as much as the first two but I like its variety and many bits and pieces here and there that I enjoy (the final harmonies in "you're so right", the billy idolesque mood of "two kinds", the smooth ending of "games", the moody verses of "call me back" and the beach boys bridges and of course, "life is simple" which is, indeed, beautiful).

and when I talk about beach boys, I mean smile/smiley smile kinda bits, not the rich and complex harmonies !

aye it's gonna be one of those albums that in years to come gets that classic people-realising-it-was-a-lot-better- than-they-thought thing. like.. i dunno the 2nd Television album or whatever.

beside "life is simple" and its singalong chorus, there's no HUGE track but somehow, very often I have one part or another of a song in my head (right now it's the bridges of "call me back"). also "darkness" which I found meh at first kinda grew on me. now I find it pretty fun.

apparently they played taken for a fool on letterman. good choice strokes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ldB7ltkYo

Re: piscesx' point, I've noticed that the reviews tended to get worse the closer they appeared to release date and wonder how much the Strokes scuppered themselves by talking up the troubled vibe behind the album. It seemed like the more unhappy they seemed in interviews, the worse the record sounded, like, "Well hell if even the band can't get behind it, why should we overlook the bad bits?"

Yeah I was wondering that. The reviews have been focusing on how they didn't enjoy the recording the process but they surely wouldn't have any idea if the band hadn't been saying that in every interview. I must admit I like this record quite a bit but it is a strange experience listening to it knowing the band don't rate it themselves, like should I really be enjoying it? Bands usually wait till the next album or a few years later to express their dissatisfaction with their albums (see Noel Gallagher with every Oasis album after Definitely Maybe) The only other time I can think of this happening is when The Beta Band did that interview in the NME the week before their debut album came out saying their album was shit.

hey, that's a great performance on letterman.
there's an energy and... an edge that's almost new !
do they get excited by this after all ?

Yeah, it really is a good performance. Much better than those 2 consecutive stale-males on SNL. Kinda wish they had more raw-energy rock w/ this album tho... would really love to see a performance top Take It Or Leave It on Letterman. Honestly have watched that vid at least 6 times.

are there ever cases of bands getting older and not getting progressively more mellow?

'Life Is Simple In The Moonlight' is really one of the best Strokes-songs, and "Machu Picchu" is not far behind. Overall this album is a very pleasant surprise, I really didn't expect anything from it.

are there ever cases of bands getting older and not getting progressively more mellow?

― Radical Adults Lick Based God Style (kelpolaris)

I think Tom Waits started doing fairly mellow songs before going weird and aggresive.

He still mellows out from time to time tho. He mellows way more than how he mellowed back then. It's fairly normal to mellow out with age tho... testosterone levels drop. Fact.

Scott Walker's not terribly mellow.

lou reed ?

he's a pussycat now.

ahah, really ? haven't heard about him in a while but I had kept this image of a grumpy ol' bastard !

for the past cpl of years lou has been making noise improv w his metal machine music trio, or collaborating w john zorn and laurie anderson, so he's less mellow now than at any time in the last 30 years

strokes alb is abt half gd - think i prefer it to the third alb, at least - and is far from the disaster the hatas are making it out to be. petredis as ever is a cloth-eared idiot who responds to other ppl's responses rather than to the thing itself - fuck him, worst music writer ever

Haters are usually on the right side of history.

I think this record's OK and occasionally (first and last tracks) great but I don't think there's any danger of it being regarded as an overlooked masterpiece in years to come. The haters are probably safe.

We usually are!

are there ever cases of bands getting older and not getting progressively more mellow?

― Radical Adults Lick Based God Style (kelpolaris), Thursday, March 24, 2011 10:15 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the ex
nick cave (grinderman obv)

Wire

the read & burn stuff was pretty harsh but what i've heard of the new one seems a little mellowed

zoikes
http://www.nme.com/news/the-strokes/55759

I wonder if Hipster Runoff will comment on this

these guys know what theyre doing. even if the 'we hate it/each other' angle has backfired slightly, due to journos taking the easy/predictable/lazy line that if the band hate it it must be bad (though to be fair it isnt that great anyway, not awful though).

i really really love this album.

so much that i am going to MSG tonight

i'll be there!

01 “Is This It”
02 “Reptilia”
03 “Under Cover Of Darkness”
04 “Hard To Explain”
05 “Last Nite”
06 “Juicebox”
07 “Someday”
08 “You’re So Right”
09 “Under Control”
10 “You Only Live Once”
11 “New York City Cops”
12 “Games”
13 “Whatever Happened”
14 “Taken For A Fool” (w/ Elvis Costello)
————–
15 “Ask Me Anything” (Guitar version)
16 “Modern Age”
17 “Gratisfaction”
18 “I Can’t Win”
19 “Take It Or Leave It”

didn't think that actually was elvis costello, good show!

hmm just noticed that's missing life is simple, which they def played.