Some second albums are disappointments. Interpol's "Antics" never lived up to the brilliance of it's predecessor, and it could be argued that "Nevermind" was nowhere close to the raw purity of "Bleach". Some second albums are vast steps up, like Radiohead's first symphony "The Bends", or The All American Rejects "Move Along". Some bands even change their sound completely, like Weezer going from Blue to Pinkerton. But The Strokes? Their second album,
Room On Fire, was a complete direction... nowhere. Mind you, it was still a fine album, set with defining Strokes sound, but everyone, from the critics to the band agreed that
Room In Fire may as well have been recorded during the same sessions as their smash debut,
Is This It?. Song for song, the album was as tight, as fiery, and as cool as it's former. Come 2005 though, when it came time to record their third album, the band did not want to make a second carbon copy. They wanted to expand their sound, experiment, do something different. The result is
First Impressions Of Earth.
First Impressions is a bit of an oddity to be sure. It's messy and experimental, and it's almost as long as the first two albums combined. Of course thinking about so many New York bands with classic sounds, you may as well be grateful you're getting a third album. The Strokes seventies sound and attitude does not parallel the careers of so many seventies bands. If you were an "it" band back then, chances are you sat on top of the world for about a week, flamed out, lost a band member to drugs, tried to recapture glory with a poppy as hell album, and fade out into oblivion. This is not The Strokes. Instead of burning out with the drinks and cigarettes they sing about,
First Impressions sees the band actually go in the opposite direction and grow up a bit. What was that? The Strokes growing up? Calm down, the change isn't all that radical. The album is still alternative enough, the musicianship is still over the top, and there are still guitar solos out the Wazoo, but occasionally we get to look into the thinking side of the band. Sprinkled throughout the album are philosophical thoughts, such as "Don't Be a Coconut, God is trying to talk to you," and witticisms, with lines like "I hate them all/ I hate myself for hating them/ So I'll drink some more/ I'll love them all/ I'll drink some more/ I'll hate them even more then I did before." Their good for a pause to think, if not to laugh, and it shows a bit of an improvement over their earlier material.
First Impressions is also a love/hate album. I've heard two sides to the story of the album, ranging from "What happened to the Strokes?" to "This album roxers my boxers." It's easy to understand both sides of the story. Frontman Julian Casablancas' voice does not appeal to everyone, and at times it does sound like you're listening to the drunk guy next to you at Mo's rant about his wife not cleaning the bathtub and therefore he's divorcing the bitch. Other times though, Casablancas' voice is perfect for the song it goes with, ready to fire and kill at any time. On the album's first single,
Juicebox, Casablancas turns a snarling bass-driven tune into a fiery barnburner when he jumps into "Why Don't You Come Over Here/ We gotta city to burn". His shriek, when he decides to use it, can make any song twice as good, and sometimes powerful. Other times however, he might as well be monologuing to thin air. On the dreadful synth-strings ballad
Ask Me Anything, he deadpans over and over again "I've got nothing to say." Should that be the case, then please Julian, don't say anything. Casablancas vocal stuggles and triumphs could summarize the whole album. When he's off, a song immediately becomes boring and mundane, but when he's on, he can make a song his own.
So what about their lead singer and "witticisms"? You're not going to buy it based on that, to be sure.
First Impressions is still as tight and as slickly produced as their first two albums. In fact, the first 6 songs, 8 if you exclude
Ask Me Anything, are all brilliant, listenable tracks. The boys really are at their best when they're rockin hard not hardly rockin (Somewhere Kripes is shaking his head, "Why?!?!"). Indeed, when The Strokes turn it up, they can make their work so much more effective. They range from the laid back surfer tune
You Only Live Once to even calling out the ghosts of Thin Lizzy and using dual lead guitars on
Razorblade. Ahh, how bout those infamous guitar players? The guitar work is excellent, as Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi put together steamrolling guitar arrangements and are able to fit their virtuosity in anywhere they can. Of course it gets intrusive, but hey, makes it all the more fun for the listener. The guitar intro to the sleek
Heart In A Cage stirs needs for amateurs everywhere to imitate, and the solos on
Vision Of Division just are mind blowing. These guys definitely know what their doing. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture even pops up here in there, with the insanely catchy
Juicebox to
On The Other Side's simple as hell bassline where all he does is hit a note and the 7th of that scale. The quintissential complaint for The Strokes has always been the musicianship being way over the top, and the musicianship is way over the top. But hey, you wouldn't want little Fab Moretti doing nothing at all, now would you?
After the first 6 tracks, the quality of the album really drops and the experimentation kicks in, and it hits you out of nowhere. You're here, rocking out to what may be one of the most fun listens you think you'll ever experience when electronic keyboards hit the fan and you lose all the adrenaline built up by the first sextet. This is followed by the somewhat decent
Electricityscape, but all hope is lost when you start knawing at the filler.
Killing Lies is one of the most boring songs I've ever heard, as is it's follower
Fear Of Sleep. Both are failed "quieter songs", and hopefully the band won't delve into them again. There's some gems saved for the back half of the album, like the funny arpeggio-based
Ize of the World, in which Casablancas contemplates mortality by throwing every word the band could think of ending with the suffix -ize. And the one successful experiment pops up back here to, with the drunk wedding waltz
15 Minutes. The lyrics here are at their funniest, where Casablancas deadpans "Take A ***, I don't know, I don't know..." It's almost like being inside the mind of an alcoholic, as the beer raising Piano Man slurring turns angry fast, as Fab changes the tempo to a pulsating 4/4, and Casablancas starts to sneer with lines like "Everybody at the party shouldn't wear what they wear." It's a classic amongst mediocrity, one of The Strokes shining moments.
So
First Impressions of Earth is standing in front of you at your local FYE, sandwiched between two incredible contributions to American society, "If Only You Were Lonely" and "Now 87" on the top twenty rack. Think you're getting it? It's really up to you. I believe The Strokes are an acquired taste, and I find most of this album delightful, and charming in it's "I don't give a ***" mentality. But if you don't like the sound the produced on their first two records, chances are you won't like this album.
First Impressions really is the branch out that Room On Fire wasn't. The first half of it is epic, I think, with everything The Strokes want to be bared in full. The second half however runs like Beowulf with missing pages, boring and hard to comprehend, with a few moments where you actually enjoy it.
First Impressions may be arguably The Strokes weakest record, but in spite of that, it is a fun listen, for the most part. In spite of branching out and sometimes missing the boast, they still are able to rock, and maintain their girlfriend-stealing charm doing it. Sorry fellas.
Recommended Tracks
Juicebox
On The Other Side
Vision Of Division
15 Minutes
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