Review Summary: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
It pains me to see that Room on Fire gets a large and unwarranted amount of disdain from the Strokes community for essentially being Is This It: Part Two. Sure, they’ll never make an album that exceeds the sheer brilliance of their debut, but they had obviously found a winning formula with their catchy, back-to-the-basics indie rock that deserved to be capitalized upon.
And at first glance, Room on Fire may seem like a direct copy of its predecessor; highlight “Reptilia” is anchored down with the dual guitar hooks and lo-fi production that characterized Is This It and it wouldn’t be out of place if it was included on that album. Julian Casablancas’ lyrics are as cocky and self-centered as ever, leaving no room for criticism as he valiantly snarls, “Please don’t slow me down/If I’m going too fast.” The end result, like all of the Strokes’ best material, is an absolute earworm of a song that demands to be repeated over and over again.
But at the same time, Room on Fire does have enough variation that prevents it from being a complete repeat of their first record. Most noticeably, the production as a whole is much fuller and cleaner, which helps augment the seeds of experimentation that the band began to plant on this album; lead single “12:51” is a New-Wave gem chock-full with synthesized guitars and subtle handclaps and the brooding “Automatic Stop” is dominated by a dark, reggae-inspired baseline courtesy of Nikolai Fraiture. Shockingly, one of the best songs here is a slower number, the achingly poignant “Under Control.” Here, Casablancas laments “We worked hard, darling/But we don’t have no control”, which surprisingly reveals that there’s a sensitive and vulnerable side to detached, hedonistic persona that propelled him and the rest of the band to stardom.
By sticking to the classic sound that they perfected, the Strokes overcame the dreaded Second-Album-Syndrome and created a record as excellent and remarkably consistent as their first LP. In fact, the only real dud on Room on Fire is “The Way It Is”, a fast-paced track that sounds like it could have come off of their debut but lacks any focus and is bogged down in exceedingly murky fuzz. The band struck the perfect balance of addictive guitar pop and experimentation here, and it’s a shame that they’ve completely let go of the former in exchange for the later; they were really onto something.
