The Strokes – First Impressions Of Earth Review

Link: The Strokes

The Inside Pulse:

The hype that greeted The Strokes and helped make their 2001 debut, Is This It, so successful was always going to be their biggest obstacle. It certainly hampered 2003’s numb follow-up, Room On Fire, which was more or less forcibly extracted by the record company. For their third effort the band side-stepped and retreated to a custom-built studio of their own design, replacing regular producer Gordon Raphael with David Kahne. The resulting record is more relaxed, confident and lively.

The best bet for a square-one is their breakthrough single, “Last Nite”, and the mysterious line “spaceships they won’t understand”. Songwriter Julian Casablancas spends the vast majority of First Impressions Of Earth attempting to justify that enigmatic spaceship’s bewilderment at city life. The characters in his lyrics are over-populated insomniacs that lose feelings to drown in electricity and are so fascinated with the trivial that the essential becomes meaningless. By the time the album draws to a close with the jaunty “Red Light” the only conclusion that can be drawn is that there are “seven billion people who’ve got nothing to say” but that they shouldn’t worry because “the sky is not the limit and you’re never gonna guess what is”.

This would all be terribly depressing if it wasn’t delivered so nonchalantly. It’s a concept album with a hidden agenda – fun. The pounding bass of “Juicebox” is a virtual bedroom for the ears and the likes of “Heart In A Cage” are still up for some sloppy seconds. “Vision Of Division” struggles to contain it all and bursts out some guitar splendour that cannot be denied. They may be unhappy boys but they are very happy about it.

Positives:

+ 2006 will bring many songs but it is extremely doubtful that any of them will have lyrics more unfortunately and humourously accurate than “On The Other Side”, which growls “I hate them, I hate them all, I hate myself for hating them, so I drink some more, I love them all, I drink even more, I hate them even more than I did before”.

+ Neil Young and Kurt Cobain may have thought it was better to burn out than to fade away, but even they would be taken aback at the wonderful ending to “Ize Of The World” and so will you.

+ It is a horribly hollow cliche to describe a new song by a band as being unlike anything they’ve ever done before but “Ask Me Anything” certainly fits the bill for The Strokes, with the band replaced by a beat-up computer effect that proves oddly touching.

Negatives:

– The Strokes have a reputation for carefully lazy lyrics but there is still a bit too much unwarranted repetition in them here, most noticeably on “Vision Of Division”.

– Some of the influences are too apparent, such as Barry Manilow on “Razorblade” and The Pogues on “15 Minutes”, but they are still rather unexpected and so quite welcome.

Cross Breeds:

As you would expect, this album has the spirited pop hooks of Blondie and the crushed city spirit of Interpol.

Reason To Buy:

People who enjoyed the first two albums don’t need any other reason to buy this one. To the rest, this will remind you exactly how much fun rock and roll can be.

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs