The Strokes Pt. 3: The Fruits of Abnormality

 

                Heyoooo, it’s your boy Deo back at it again. And what am I back with? Oh yeah, you already know… I’m coming in with the third and final part to The Strokes artist review where I pretty much listen to the whole discography of the artist and give my thoughts. For this final part, we’ll be going over the projects “Comedown Machine”, “Future Present Past – EP”, and “The New Abnormal”. Without further ado, lets just get into it.

                The first project I’ll talk about is “Comedown Machine”. Right away with the first song “Tap Out” you can hear the 80s influenced instrumental that was definitely more prominent in the last project “Angles”. We’re given a much calmer song with distortion to the lyrics from Casablancas, creating some new and some old at the same time. I enjoyed the groovyness and tameness of this song, thinking it would give a bit of foreshadowing for the rest to come. Boy, was I wrong. If there’s one word to describe what this album is… it would be a ‘rollercoaster’. I say that because the songs on this project range from being the most mellow of songs to being the craziest garage rock songs the Strokes can deliver. The songs I have in mind for this are ‘80s Comedown Machine’ being followed by ‘50/50’. ‘80s Comedown Machine’ definitely created a down mood for me as I felt like I was just listening to an honest group giving their honest work. Towards the end of that song, I was feeling like a cloud, just floating away. Then all of a sudden, I’m slammed by ‘50/50’ and I legit felt my heart skip a beat to catch up to the aggressive collage of sounds presented. These couple of sentences pretty much summarize my description on the album. Each song serves to deliver a certain mood to me, making Julian Casablancas’s use of lyrics be a huge factor in creating these different attitudes throughout the project. This album is also a mixture of different sounds, making the album me more diverse in sound than concise. Usually, this take on making an album gives me a bad taste in my mouth as I’ve talked about before how important the cohesion of the songs in a project deliver towards the overall purpose of the album. However, I was happy to have a different opinion when it came to “Comedown Machine” as it gave me a unique set of songs that fit to different occasions of my choosing. While the grit from the prior projects wasn’t apparent here, I was instead given a groovy vibe from the band as a whole and I appreciated it. I’d give this album an 8/10.

                The next project is the EP “Future, Present, Past”. This EP came with three songs and a remix of the second song, ‘Oblivius’. This project takes a unique perspective as it has the Strokes take more political commentary in their music through the lyrics of Casablancas. The first song, ‘Drag Queen’ is a great example as he criticizes capitalistic economies and Western philosophy. Lines to support this would be, “I don’t understand, your fucked up system, this sinister city, try to sell the water, try to sell the air, try to sell your daughter, try to sell her hair”. This song definitely reminded me of Bob Dylan as Casablancas’s distorted voice seems to mimic the attitude of the pioneer before him. The second song, ‘Oblivius’ is another groovy 80s inspired song that furthers the criticism that was mentioned in the first song. This was also a good song, as was the third song ‘Threat of Joy’. I appreciate this EP because even though it was just three songs, it gave me another detail to add to the face of the Strokes as a band and gave me a glimpse of their mindset as they live in the same world as me. Each song was pretty good, so I’d give this project an 8/10 as well.

                Finally, we come to their most recent project that gave this group their first Grammy, “The New Abnormal”. This was the first project that I listened to from this group late last year due to the recommendation of a close friend of mine. It was until I finished that album that I wanted to listen to more and later influenced me to start this artist review. I’m gonna go ahead and say it… this project was perfect in my opinion. The production quality was amazing and the instrumentals in this album were both groovy and moody, a combination that I’ve come to love from the Strokes. Each song sounds so crisp, making the group have the ability to showcase their experience through all the years of making music. The lyrical content of this album was also inspiring because it shows the growth of the group both metaphorically and literally. Each song serves to give a little piece of the mentality of the Strokes at this point in life, having songs like ‘Bad Decisions’, ‘Why Are Sundays So Depressing’, and ‘Not the Same Anymore’ bridge their interactions with their success as a band, their past before fame, and who they are now. My favorite song though will always be ‘Ode to the Mets’. To me, this was a gift from god as this song shows just how amazing Julian Casablancas is as a singer and how well this group are able to share their own stories through their performance. Something as simple as “Drums please, Fab” in the beginning of the song can showcase show much as drummer Fabrizio Moretti easily slides into the song with the rest of the group. The lyrics are heavy, the sounds are soul crushing, and by the end you’re just in for the time of your life. The outro of this song made me shiver instantly as you can hear the emotion pouring out of the group as they share their inner perceptions of how far they’ve come in life. This song captures the human element perfectly, and the album is the perfect example of how a couple of cohesive songs can create an experience that’s worthy of constant replays and analysis. I don’t know if I’ve done this before on the blog, but this album is a 10/10 for me. Everything was perfect, and I wouldn’t want to change one thing.

                This brings me to the conclusion of the Strokes artist review. The Strokes started off being a simple garage band who set out to revive a dying genre, and in turn we get an amazing adventure with a group that each had an amazing personality to show through their music. After listening to all of their work, I’ll be honest and say this is probably my favorite Alt Rock band. I’m still new to the genre and I have a lot to listen to, but as of now I am very much pleased. I’m definitely going to try to see them live soon so I’m excited for that as well. Thank you to those who are reading and allowed me to share my experience with you, and I hope you all have a great week. Take care!

 

Favorite Songs:

 

Comedown Machine: Tap Out, One Way Trigger, Welcome to Japan, 80s Comedown Machine, 50/50, Slow Animals, Partners in Crime, Chances, Happy Ending, Call It Fate, Call It Karma

Future, Present, Past: All of it

The New Abnormal: ALL. OF. IT.