The Strokes- First Impressions of Earth
The term of the world-wide “New Year” is silly. The obtuse, nonessential idea of placing another arid, and very fattening holiday right after Christmas that usually involves more feasts, more alcohol, and much more utter bull*** advertising for America’s “fellow” companies gets to be very tiring, and exclusively pointless. The more you put up with the unnecessary holiday’s ugly bearing over years, the more you realize it’s another excuse for profit in the country’s advertising-world, and another excuse for groups of alcoholics to “enjoy” another absurd risk of alcohol poisoning or lovely liver disease. It’s time passing on. It’s nature settling in for a new year. Not the coming of Christ or the return of Seinfeld. The still-fascinating element of time is unavoidable, and it’s wrapped around everything we will ever come in contact with. Another holiday doesn’t have to be placed in the middle of nature’s time passing. But if the rest of the world must, then please continue, but don’t include me.
Enjoy the party. I’ll be in my room testing out The Strokes’ new record.
It is time that revolves around everything in life, living and non-living. It makes things change, sometimes very drastically, sometimes not at all. We may call this age. In the world of music, age has played a very important part in a way that it works with periods of time to make artists wiser, more intellectual beings that will progress in the industry with no problem. Sometimes it’s the other way around, but forget that matter, as it’s useless in this paragraph. Now, imagine your band starting out with a record that got somewhere immediately. It got on the Rolling Stone top 500 list. That’s more than an honor, it’s very big acclaim on your part. Few have a debut album on the list. And those who do are some like Zeppelin, The Clash, and The Stones. Honor. After the success of the looked-over
Is This It? as
The Strokes’ debut back in 2001, it clearly put them on the map by the time
Room On Fire released. Room on fire was the second album, and the very best by opinion. It’s one of those albums you just can’t get off your mind for time to come.
The Strokes have had a very good run, and have been one of the most successful in the last 5 years. It’s January 3, 2006, and
First Impressions of Earth releases. As the third record, it’s got me and I’m sure others very excited. I’ll admit, it takes some time to get through the album to take it as the whole it actually is. And when this time finally came, a lot of things became clear. One of them being that The Strokes have gotten less creative, and have decided to easily stick with something that sounds exactly the same. The album isn’t a complete disappointment, but unexpected duplicate work like this right here is enough to get a fan a little down.
On every Strokes record, all songs hold potential. There’s very few that do. It’s always been very high for each as well. No song is ever completely inferior.
Impressions is no different. Each song holds some kind of potential that in the end, pushes it forward and makes it stand for something. Let’s start out with the brain. Julian Casablancas has become on the the most recognizable voices in the industry so far in the band’s career. Expect it to stay this way, as Julian ‘s vocals have become very monotone. It’s clear that he’s always used some sort of effect on his vocals, as no one truly can talk like that. It used to have moods and times when it was clear it signaled toward different expressions.
Impressions had the vocals very up against the wall, with very, very few ways to go. Every second of this album will seem like a form of complaining, being down, and continuous dissatisfied yelps for help. Some people get a kick out of that, and they’ll have to decide that one on their own. But is the vocals are simply altered to one expression for a whole album, that’ll have to be a big negative on my watch.
Upbeat tempos and very over-the-top musicianship will get in the way of vocals, but they just don’t budge. It used to have variety. Good musicianship is heard often on
Impressions. Looks like time has done it’s beautiful damage once again. Guitars by Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond are indeed a plus. The old-fashioned Strokes’ tradition of a lone riff being led by Julian’s voice is still in play. Ear-catching at times, sometimes very bland and boring. The very organized, ingenious solos take part in few tracks like
Evening Sun. And
Vision of Division is a wake-up call for anyone who ever said guitar-work in The Strokes was “boring”. It’s always caught some form of attention, simple or non-simple. Let the smooth, electric surroundings of introductory wonders (Electricityscape, Heart In A Cage) prepare you for what ends the process. /plus.
Fabrizio Moretti and Nikolai Fraiture have always worked together to get the sound of simply getting a kick out of The Strokes’ music. Nikolai’s work has been varied up to now, sporting a nice bassline on an album that always goes unnoticed. He plays some big parts on
Impression, thus brining farther the fact that musicianship is at a big rise for the album.
Juicebox is the first single off here, and is one of the few things off the album that just doesn’t sound like The Strokes. It’s brilliant. The bass armament Nikolai has lined up quickly turns into a mimic session for guitars and a very wanted clear change of pace for Julian’s vocals. Ignited, and kept ablaze by the bass guitar. Of course it’s been done before, and this is must for a fan to hear.
On The Other Side also features a very creative lick that keeps the guys going to an extent, then puts on a show to finish off.
Fabrizio has always been another favorite of mine for few reasons.
Is This It? included some very complex stuff for Moretti, and it showed itself well, but at times, it didn’t go with other very simple, yet also well-played components tracks shot off at you. Then,
Room On Fire was filled with very, very simple beats, and fills based on 16th notes that for me, made Moretti famous (apart from dating Drew Barrymore). I see something very admirable in a simplistic drummer who’s there to play the simple notes with high concentration, thus making those notes sound excellent. Fab didn’t let down this time either. He continues with very driven, basic beats and at times brings out big guns, usually when guitars do as well.
Razorblade is one of the very best off the album and is compelled right away with the charm Fabrizio offers and gives out. Excellent musicianship sequence completed!
What truly keeps the album from sinking to a point where the album isn’t completely worth your time is the very motivated musicianship inside it. If Julian had worked a little bit more on variety, and getting his audience a little big more hyped up during high points and such other portions of the composition, maybe we’d have a 4, maybe a 4.5 on the table. Silly Casablancas. The percent rate-chance of encountering some boring, maybe unpleasant material on this album is about 38%. At any time. This indicating about ¾ of the album is very well-arranged, and after careful listening, loses value. The tracks listed in the Stand Out section are listed as six tracks. Six very brilliant ones. Six tracks is almost half the album-length, and are there to inform about the very songs listeners and most importantly, fans should give a listen before considering buying the album, or gaining control of the rest of it.
Another thing revolving around the score is simple. A three out of five is exactly what it says it is. Listen up, for anybody that takes that 3, maybe a 3.5 for granted. A three is a GOOD record. It has potential, and is if not highly enjoyable at times, very-well worth a listener’s time, especially if in this case, a fan. Don’t take the friendly three out of five as a harsh rating. The album is good. It’s good for an occasional listen, it’s good to dance to, if you prefer. And it’s very, very good for a fan of the band to listen to. Who knows, there will be a review of this in the future with a much higher rating than mine. I’m sure there will be, it’s an innocent opinion. A brilliant single like that should give you some direction to start out with. The now world-wide famous
Strokes didn’t fail to deliver fans a very enjoyable album that you’d come back to everyday. They didn’t deliver what I thought was the best they could. But the album sure is a very good attempt to reach an audience, and the band still holds my respect. So I salute The Strokes once again. I’ll see you guys when time marks it’s time to bloom once again.
The Strokes-
Julian Casablancas- Vocals
Nick Valensi- Guitar
Albert Hammond Jr- Guitar
Nikolai Fraiture- Bass
Fabrizio Moretti- Drums
Stand Out Tracks
~You Only Live Once
~Juicebox
~Razorblade
~On The Other Side
~Vision Of Division
~Electricityscape
Good.
3/5
