Essay About The Strokes — Angles Album Review
I remember the exact place I was when I bought the first single off of The Strokes’ third album First Impressions of Earth. I was sitting in my Vegan-Vegetarian dorm, at the University of Vermont, hating my life because of the first part of this sentence. I bought the track “Juicebox,” and got prepared for the third album from one of my favorite bands. You see in high school I was very into the indie rock scene, and in 2001, when The Strokes dropped Is This It, garage rock was reborn to my generation. You can imagine my excitement when I purchased the first single off of their new album Angles. “Under Cover Of Darkness” sounded a bit poppy for my Strokes, but it was still a catchy song, so I waited for 12:00am today wearing my nerdy thick-brimmed glasses of excitement. I should also add that you get about as much flack as a Justin Bieber fan for liking The Strokes these days, but that doesn’t stop Shia Labeouf and I from rocking our Magna Tee. No no, I walk around Boston with pride when that shirt is on, while he fights evil robots and Starbucks patrons.
I waited until the morning to give Angles my first listen through, even though I downloaded it at 12:01am. This was mostly because my girlfriend wouldn’t let me listen to it before bed. The album starts with “Machu Piccu,” and a different sound than its predecessors, but then you hear Julian’s voice and realize it’s the real deal.
The album then goes into their single “Under Cover of Darkness,” and then launches into “Two Kinds of Happiness,” which sounds like a mix between a Cure track and a Cars track, although you can’t help but groove to it. My two favorite tracks on the album after listening to it a few times are “Games,” and “Life Is Simple In the Moonlight.” If you are looking grab one song off of the album to test the water, I would advise against the single, because it is not representative of the rest of the record. Pick up “Machu Piccu” and you will be head bobbin in no time.
All in all, I am very pleased with the album, but I would have been pleased if it had sucked, just because this album was 5 years in the making and I’ve been hooked on the Strokes for 10 years now. It comes off as a bunch of songs that sound like other bands’ songs, and not as much a record of Strokes songs. This album gives me the impression that the band is still trying to find its true, more mature sound. All of the components are there, and in the final track of the album “Life Is Simple In the Moonlight,” you hear what the band could and should sound like ten years after Is This It.
In the last moments of the record a more complex and full sound prevails, leaving a satisfied smile on your face. This is a must have for anyone who likes the current “indie” rock scene — Grace Potter, Vampire Weekend, and Florence and her Machine would never have sold an album if these guys hadn’t done what they did. The Strokes reinvented the Rock and Roll band that liked to have too good of a time. In other words, they brought back savagery to music, and for this, I thank them. Enjoy and remember — life is all about the Angles.
