REVIEW: The Strokes - Angles

The Strokes - Angles
MMMM

The Strokes released one of the best and most significant albums of the past 10 years with their 2001 debut, Is This It. It wasn’t so much that the music was completely original as much as it was a revival of something that was once previously relegated to a past era. The hype that surrounded the band leading up to and following the release of Is This It created quite a lot for the band to live up to. The follow-up album, Room On Fire, didn’t take too many risks and stayed the course – a well-received effort considering the pressure that must have been on them to match the success of their debut. The third album, First Impressions of Earth, saw the band trying to step outside the shadow of their identifiable sound, experimenting a bit with generally positive results – not their best work, but certainly something that succeeded in its own right.

It’s now been five years since The Strokes released an album of new material, and Angles is being heralded as their comeback record. Unfortunately, it seems as though The Strokes are being labeled as one of those bands with a great debut that could never escape the shadow of past success. With an album as defining as Is This It to their name, a great many went on hoping for more of the same, when – understandably – the band have always wanted to grow and create something that was more than just a reiteration of what they’ve previously done. Angles is the first step in the realization of the band’s evolution, and it is their most daring, creative effort since Is This It.

Singer Julian Casablancas has been the primary songwriter on all past Strokes releases, but, with Angles, all members contributed during the songwriting process. The album’s eclecticism is the product of this new democratic model. Considering multiple points of view provided the band a chance to look outside the sound that has come to define them since their explosive introduction, now a decade in the past; four additional perspectives offer a greater, more wide-ranging palette to draw from, as evidenced here. As the result of an extended break – one that was filled with more than a few aborted attempts to produce a new album as well as internal band tumult – Angles is also an album of compromise and change that documents a band’s willingness to return with the unexpected. It’s not the band’s most ambitious album to date as much as it is their most adventurous.

The Strokes, despite leading the front of the garage rock revival of the early ‘00s, have always had an affinity for the ‘80s, especially Casablancas, who made it a point to have synthesizer play the starring role on his 2009 debut solo LP, Phrazes For the Young. Synthesizer adds a lot of color throughout Angles, whether it’s the subtle backdrop of chords on “Call Me Back” or the foreboding chords of a singing choir and the symphonic waves on “Metabolism.” But the ‘80s influence doesn’t end with synthesizer. Beginning with First Impressions of Earth, The Strokes have had a tendency to take the angular, active, rhythmic guitar leads of ‘80s post-punk – and new wave – and run them through the grittier lens of garage, managing to be simultaneously sharp and raw; able to be more refined and not as abstract.

And the band has never sounded so stylistically diverse. Opener “Machu Picchu” crosses a reggae rhythm with a New Wave feel. “Games,” one of the band’s most ambitious compositions to date, is the poster child for The Strokes’ embrace of synthesizer: the song features no guitars until the closing moments. “Gratisfaction” sounds like The Strokes taking on Big Star. Closer “Life Is Simple In the Moonlight” is a surprising and successful risk, with its shifting keys, swells of guitar chords, and the new wave synth that lends a twilight dreaminess to the song.

The band has admitted that Angles was difficult to make, with Casablancas not even being present when they (guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fab Moretti) were cutting tracks for the album – he recorded his vocals in another studio. With Casablancas’ input following the work of everyone else, there was obviously some disconnect along the way, and, at times, the music can sound more melodic and engaging than the vocals. From time to time, the relationship between the guitar playing of Valensi and Hammond Jr. can be a stronger hook. The physical distance can be felt, but it’s never something that truly detracts from the overall success of the album.

The Strokes began their career with a great set of tunes on Is This It, a set that obtained its grit through Casablancas singing through a veil of distortion. Angles is not only The Strokes’ most dynamic work to date, it’s also the first time that the band has captured its maturity on record; the band have never sounded as upfront and forthright. Despite its somewhat fractured beginnings, Angles proves that a band communicating through music is something both interesting and entertaining to experience. Life is full of multiple perspectives, and Angles is a kaleidoscopic amalgamation of The Strokes’ journey over the past few years. Is this it? No, The Strokes are back and just warming up for what’s next.

Angles Audio Review


Angles is out tomorrow in the U.S.