MUSIC REVIEW: THE STROKES - 'ANGLES'

Worth the Wait: An Album Which Negotiates Sharp Corners & Rocks On in New Gear

By: Andrew Shaw

March 22, 2011

(RCA) “I’m putting your patience to the test” is the first line of the first track on the first album from The Strokes in five years.  "Machu Picchu," that deserted city of mystery and imagination high in the Andes, is an interesting metaphor to open proceedings.  From a band who turned in a slightly faltering last album in First Impressions of Earth and who have not been quiet about the unrest within the camp, this initial statement may be an act of good old fashioned churlishness.  The kind of lip-curling stuff we like in Rock 'n’ Roll. Machu Picchu is a place of rarified wonder, famously difficult to reach, wonderfully preserved, and a place where the seasons' wheels were worshiped. A songwriter of Julian Casablancas’ perceptive intelligence won’t be a stranger to the weight of significance in the choice of landmark opener. 

With some members of The Strokes toying with solo ventures and achieving sweet levels of accomplishment, credit has to be given to a band’s chemistry (though reportedly fractious) which pulls all members back into the fold, no matter how long and how difficult the process of accommodating egos may be. Songwriting credits, for the first time here on Angles, are distributed amongst The Strokes, and not simply assumed by Casablancas.

Whilst this is undoubtedly The Stokes' sound, something happens in temper that shifts emphasis from Rock to a motoring Alt-Pop feel. Post-Punk residue rusts up the edges of some of the shinier production values. It’s a strange and sort of pleasantly discomforting blend of pushes and pulls. Maybe this multi-colored blend of influence is a direct result of the newly established songwriting democracy.  What happens is a progression of contrasts to accommodate tastes of more than just the usual Strokes fan.

“Under Cover of Darkness” echos sounds first introduced on Is This It? Energy is increased; guitar hooks are high-pitched, clean and sharp. "Everybody’s singing the same song for 10 years” and  “I will wait for you”  are lines that indicate the perception of passing time and perhaps expectation placed on the band to replicate the effects of monumental debut. There’s also a level of confidence here that indicates The Strokes are perhaps ahead of the field.  Again, the level of intelligence and Pop awareness demands that they look over their shoulder as they deliver culturally ironic passages.

At other moments, sounds come mainlined from the 1980s, or from soundtracks when Blue-Screen dropped jaws. It’s in those passages, when The Strokes seem to forget themselves or the differences they may have, that flat-out fun happens. It may not be as hip a sound as fans would like, and for that, it’s all the more cool. “Taken For a Fool” sounds like the abandonment of men who just pick up instruments, jam, and do what they do best. All the more magical for being less-calculated, 10 years older, and unconcerned by what the young and deadly are saying.

Of course, Angles isn’t a return to the sound that was heralded by the arrival of their messianic debut; that would be a sad rehashing of formula. What it is is a return to eagerness and the recognition that The Strokes as a unit are stronger than The Stokes as solo artists. Passions may sometimes bang against one another, but, at least for the band and their fans, more is achieved by being in the same room, working out differences and propelling toward new waters. This is a reassuring album that everything is being negotiated, everything is working out, and the future is so much more mature and brighter than the past.

Standout Tracks: “Undercover of Darkness,” “Taken for a Fool,” “Life Is Simple in the Moonlight”

For Fans Of: Julian Casablancas, The Killers