Vikings & Beekeepers

Artist: The Strokes

Background: For better or worse, the Strokes are responsible for a dramatic shift in the aesthetic of popular music in the early part of the 21st century. In 2001, the year the Strokes broke, cool became the key. Out were baggy cargos and backwards baseball caps, in was dirty denim and slept on hair. Musically, the Strokes inspired a whole bevy of wannabes to pick up cues from the credibility enhancing artists of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Without the Strokes there would have been no garage rock revival, no dance punk revival, no New Wave revival, no Interpol and no Bloc Party. However, without the Strokes we probably wouldn’t have had to endure the likes of The Vines, She Wants Revenge and Pete Doherty, but you can’t win ‘em all. In 2000 it was Limp Bizkit, now it’s the Killers. Pick your poison.

The Strokes themselves had a hodgepodge of influences. You take a dash of Lou Reed’s bored mutter, Television’s intertwining guitars and the recorded-in-a-tin-can quality of early Guided By Voices and you have the essential DNA of the Strokes. The group’s first album, Is This It, arrived during the summer of ’01 to colossal expectations. Music mags the world over smacked their lips together anticipating the new Nirvana – a band to define an era. Their hopes were generally met, although the Strokes were never a huge seller compared to Cobain and Co. Is This It became such a critical darling that even early on it was hailed as a classic. After Is This It, the Strokes became bona fide rock stars - dating the most super of supermodels, snorting only the finest blow, throwing $1000 bills at hobos and yelling, “Dance, Rummy!” In 2003, they released the marginal selling Room On Fire, to a mix of critical raves and cries of “same old, same old.” Then they released First Impressions of Earth to even less sales and worse reviews. A hiatus and what should be several unnecessary solo albums were to follow. I predict a reunion album before the turn of the decade.

Overrated: Is This It

The overrated/underrated debate began on this album months before it was even available for mass consumption, or at least available on AudioGalaxy (this is 2001, after all). Hype will do that to you. Those on the “yay” side marveled at the marriage of influences and the seedy 70’s New York cool attitude it fairly successfully conveyed. The “nay” side pointed out a lack of originality as well as the fact that the songs sounded like shit and weren’t particularly interesting. Both sides had a point. Is This It isn’t anything new or interesting, but it does sport the right influences and the re-imagining of the Velvet Underground in 1977 is successful. The album is supposed to sound tinny and effortless, because that’s what the Strokes were going for. That’s their whole aesthetic, always was, always will be.

This debate has gone on and on. Some resent the album for its hype, others are quick to hold it in the same esteem that they do the album’s influences (Pitchfork placed the album in its top 20 of the first half of the current decade). Of course, with almost all things, the truth lies somewhere in between. Is This It is neither great (other than “Hard To Explain,” no song really inspires much more than a dozen or so singalongs), nor is it awful (there’s not a single “bad” song on the album). It’s just a pretty good pop punk record. No more, no less. It contains some immediate pleasures (like hit single “Last Nite”), but nothing that truly holds up. It contains a whole lot of attitude, but not a whole lot of soul. It sounds robotic, calculated. It’s like the band spent extra time in the studio to make it sound like they spent less time in the studio. We recognize the album for its cultural significance, but musically it’s slight and just a little bit phony.

Underrated: Room On Fire

The difference between Is This It and Room On Fire is the difference between a good pop punk album and a great pop punk album. Taking the basic sonic foundation of Is This It, and subtly adding the necessary tiny elements that give an album depth, the Strokes really got it right on Room On Fire. As a historical document, Is This It may be the album to turn to, but when it comes down to the music, no context attached, Room On Fire is clearly the superior album. Place any track from Room On Fire next to any track on Is This It and you’ll hear something extra.

Drummer Fabrizio Moretti always played with a metronome-like steadiness, but on Room On Fire, he sounds more than simply inhuman - he’s T-1000, a robot in an advanced technological age. On tracks like “The Way It Is” (streaming below) you would swear it was a drum machine, but you would be wrong. Moretti’s mechanical syncopation on Room On Fire adds a new wave element that not only defines a new dynamic for the band, but it also adds a level of fun the band never really had before.

The guitar interplay between Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. has always been the most interesting and impressive part of the Strokes’ sound. On the best moments of Is This It, the guitars sound like time-is-of-the-essence summaries of Television’s rhythm/lead ebb and flow. On Room On Fire, the guitars spin and twirl with perfect precision, but there’s more sadness in the chording (“Automatic Stop”) and more playfulness in the hooks (“Reptilia”). “12:51” stands as a highlight with its late-70’s power pop new wave sheen. The guitars on this song sound like the entirety of Marquee Moon condensed into the synthesizer solo on the Cars’ “Just What I Needed.” This video game guitar tone shows up on multiple tracks, but instead of it sounding like forced nostalgia – something the Strokes are often guilty of – it fits perfectly, it’s organic even. This is the great irony of Room On Fire, everything sounds synthesized and highly fussed over, but it comes across as the Strokes most natural work.

Lead singer Julian “People Say I Eat Too Many Chocolate Bars” Casablancas is Room On Fire’s greatest coming out story. On Is This It he sounds bored and detached, but here he sounds bored, detached and totally heartbroken. On opening track of all opening tracks, “What Ever Happened?” (streaming? Why yes), Casablancas sings “I wanna be forgotten / And I don’t want to be reminded” like a man who’s been crushed. Yet he pulls it off with that aloof swagger of a voice. It’s a great intro to a great song and it’s among the best the Strokes have ever recorded.

Then there’s “Under Control” (most definitely streaming below), a wobbly soul number that sounds like a distant memory of watching a crimson sunset on the beach. Oh, and it’s also the greatest song the Strokes have ever written and will ever write. Filed under the “Ballad” category, “Under Control” takes the Strokes into totally new territory. The guitars trade in their Mario Bros. riffs in exchange for full sounding, clean-toned minor chord structures. The drums return to a human state and volley back and forth between accidentally pushing the beat too much and stalling the beat too much. If this song were an instrumental, even without the catchy guitar acrobatics, it would still be the most emotional, big-hearted song the Strokes ever performed. But then there’s Casablancas, typically a leather-jacketed, Lou Reed aping, to cool to not mumble singer, cleaning himself up, putting on his Sunday best and performing (and actually singing!) like he’s Otis Redding or Curtis Mayfield or friggin Sam Cooke. I mean the guy always had the lead singer schtick down, but now he’s got soul. He’s crooning here and he never sounded better. It makes one think that maybe the Strokes wouldn’t have been seen as such fashion-first poseurs if Casablancas had simply dropped the greasy hair and a cigarette act and sang like he meant it. But then again, the contrast between the Strokes we know and the Strokes we want to know is all the fun.

In the end, as it was with Is This It, Room On Fire is just highly stylized pop punk. To some it’s not challenging enough, it’s too orchestrated. No one really likes rock stars anymore, anyway. But there those who can look past the fact that it’s a little too perfect, a little too cool, a little too rock star and simply hear an amazing batch of songs that mix all the right influences with all the right execution. The Strokes will not enhance anyone’s credibility. They will never be the favorite band of the kid who champions Xiu Xiu or Jandek, but even those kids need to let their hair down and just enjoy the pop punk once in a while. And for those that do, this should be the album that they go to. This is it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 1:14 am and is filed under New Artists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.