I just see them as a tremendous lost opportunity. This band completely lost the plot with First Impressions of Earth till this very day. Although "You Only Love Once" might be their best song ever.

First Impressions was their great lost opportunity, cut half of the songs on that album, which were fillers, and it would have been an amazing album.

The only time Julian Casablancas wrote an entire Strokes LP was Is this it...

I don't really think its hate, more like maybe a slight bit of bitter disappointment concerning how great the band could have been. Is This It is a bonafide classic in my book. As a debut its gonna be one of the ten best of all time and its a generation defining record as well. Room on Fire is a legitimately great record as well, but they just lost the plot afterwards. First Impressions like BHN has moments of glory, but its overstuffed with too many mediocre songs. Angles is 50/50 good, and I just think comedown machine is boring. Yeah theres some experimentation going on, but they don't feel vital and there's just a lifelessness surrounding them these days. Kinda feels halfhearted a lot of the time.

I still like Angles but for the longest time I thought it was called Angels.

Why do you think they're still putting out music? Contractual obligations?

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Well, they are label free since the release of Comedown Machine(I know they signed with Rough Trade for 7 albums in the UK but in the rest of the world they were signed with RCA for 5) and they want to release a new one.

Their debut album is still so fucking good.

A really good write up. What do people think of this record? I remember the hype was so real. I was in high school at the time and I remember they had advertisements on tv for the record. Albert really nailed it with his description of the album. It was the last truly magical strokes record in a weird way, because they still felt so vital at the time, but it also kinda marked the end of them as an exciting band. Angles has some bright moments and is more successful as an experimental record and Comedown Machine is consistent, but neither take you on the rocky up and down roller coaster of quality and emotion that this record does. Razorblade, You Only Live Once are legit Stroke classics in my book. Vision Of Division, Heart In A Cage, Ize Of The World, Evening Sun, Electricityscape, are all pretty good as well, and hell I even like Juicebox! I get the hate for that song, but its just a fucking ripper. I love how comic it is. Definitely inspired Arctic Monkeys to some degree on that one. But it kinda alludes to the dense, even more crammed sound that Julian would drift toward.

No love for Razorblade? I get that its a bit of a rip, but I love how its a reggae cousin to Under Control. YOLO is a classic for sure, but Razborblade isn't too far behind in my books. Juicebox's maddness just perfectly sums of the Strokes circa 2006, similar to how D'You Know What I Mean sums up Oasis in 1997. Its a tune that splits people, and I've had an on and off again relationship with it, but I lean more towards loving it. Ize Of The World is what the Voidz shoulda been. Really underrated track. This is also the first Strokes album where they all really became legit musicians. They were good before no doubt, and the songs were definitely better but everyone besides Julian stepped their game up here. Hell even he gave up the vox filter.

Definitely a Classic for sure. It's tough to follow up such a blistering Debut to be fair, some bands have that one off statement and they can't reach those heights again.

In some band cases they follow up a debut with a very good second album (Oasis and Arctic Monkeys) or fine one (Stone Roses and even the Strokes themselves) some can't be bothered cause they know they can never top it (The La's).


For me The Strokes fall into the same trap with Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines, Arcade Fire, Bands for me that still release fine stuff but nothing that reaches the peaks of their debut albums.