A Guide to the Strokes

The band that would become the Strokes met through various private schools its members attended. While at the elite Dwight School in Manhattan, lead vocalist and songwriter Julian Casablancas jammed with guitarist Nick Valensi and drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Casablancas met bassist Nikolai Fraiture at Lycée Français de New York before he was whisked off at age 13 to a boarding school in Switzerland, where he met Albert Hammond Jr. Casablancas was the connective tissue between the former schoolmates, eventually drafting them to form the Strokes.

The band sent a rough demo of their songs to the newly reformed Rough Trade label, who eventually put out the band’s first EP, The Modern Age. Featuring just three songs — “The Modern Age,” “Last Nite,” and “Barely Legal” — the recording is raw, loud, and incredibly appealing. Record executives agreed, and a competitive bidding war for the band ensued after The Modern Age’s release, which saw the group eventually sign to RCA. The black, red, and white sleeve with a deceptively simplistic swirl somehow perfectly encapsulates the EP’s content and gives the unpolished DIY feel of an album made by an enthusiastic group of young adults in an actual garage. 

The band’s debut Is This It is one of those rare things — a piece of work that not only holds up to the hype, but years and years later, still sounds close to perfect. Tracks like “Hard to Explain” and “Take It Or Leave It”  encapsulate the frenetic movement of cross-town club-hopping, dive bar drink specials, and sloppy, drunken make-out sessions — all delivered with the organic urgency that only youth can provide. Songs like “Barely Legal,” “Soma,” and “Someday” are the clear archetypes for other successful groups who followed, most notably Hot Hot Heat and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Similarly, “Trying Your Luck” and “Alone, Together” are obvious predecessors to the pop hits of The Killers and the lighter side of Interpol.

Though the release was impacted by September 11, the magic of Is This It provided a bright spark of energy during a dark time in U.S. history. Even the cover art — originally a black and white shot of a nude model in silhouette — was replaced with a vivid turquoise and yellow image of bubble particles. Both covers work, the original conveying the stark beauty of minimalism, while the almost illuminated U.S. sleeve perfectly captures the almost overzealous, bursting-forth nature of the album. Though including the same track names and titles as the EP, lyrics and arrangements differ between the two as the songs were rerecorded for the LP. The U.S. edition also replaced “New York City Cops” with “When It Started” as the band’s opinion of law enforcement changed after seeing their actions at ground zero.

After touring almost non-stop in support of their debut album, the Strokes returned to the studio to begin work on their follow-up. With just three months of studio time allotted to record, the band admitted that the result was rushed. 

A first effort to collaborate with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich was aborted after he clashed with Casablancas. Then, Gordon Raphael, who had worked with the band on their debut LP, returned in his place. This may explain why some reviewers saw the new album as more of an extension than an evolution, with BBC Music saying, “They’ve made Is This It part two. It’s more of the same plus extras.” Of the album’s three singles — “Reptilia,” “12:15,” and “The End Has No End” — only the latter offers a glimpse of new ideas, with the former pair sounding as if they could have been included on a deluxe version of the Strokes’ first album.

Their third studio LP, like its predecessors, was written almost entirely by Casablancas. This led to increasing tension within the band, with the ruptures beginning to show in the tracks themselves. Seeming to fulfill one journalist’s ominous prediction that the Strokes had “nowhere to go but out of style,” sales and critical reception lagged far behind the enthusiastic reaction enjoyed by the former two albums.

The band brought in Raphael to once again pick up the production reins before replacing him with David Kahne, best known for working with Sublime and Paul McCartney. Though it may not have been hailed as a triumph at its release, single “Juicebox” shows off a matured, louder, and cleaner version of the band with relentless throbbing drums and Casablancas’ vocals trying to keep up. “Heart in a Cage” spotlights a new, almost prog-rock sensibility, while “You Only Live Once” amalgamates the lighter, polished sound of the group with a trademark hooky sing-along more fit for a smoky club than an amphitheater in vibe. While First Impressions of Earth may not be as celebrated as Is This It, the songcraft, lyric writing, and style deserve some serious consideration and shouldn’t be tossed out as a lackluster third offering.

A five-year hiatus saw further cracks in the band as members pursued their own projects, fought various substance abuse issues, and generally struggled to collaborate as a unit. While past albums had been made fairly quickly, Angles took over two years, with the band — minus Casablancas — laying down tracks with new producer Joe Chiccarelli. Disheartened by the absence of their lead singer and the style Chiccarelli was taking the album, the record was almost entirely scrapped and reworked at Hammond’s home studio with engineer Gus Oberg. The Guardian called the resulting release “a laboured album that sounded as if it was made by a band who did not want to record it at all.” Indeed, Valensi later confided that he wouldn’t participate in the next album if the same tactics were used. “No way,” he said. “It was awful– just awful.”

As a fan, the album is not horrible; it just does not sparkle or demand to be listened to. Singles “Taken for a Fool” and “Under Cover of Darkness” sound like classic Strokes fodder, vocals upfront and the clanging guitars. However, there is a boredom and formulaic quality, an almost recycled feeling, that does not cause the same excitement found on the band’s previous offerings.

There was a complete press and promotion black out for the band’s fifth RCA LP — no interviews, tours, or appearances. Casablancas now concedes that at the time the group was not “in harmony.” While this may be true, the lead single “One Way Trigger” has a retro ’80s feel; the synths and structures are more than a bit reminiscent of a-ha’s classic “Take On Me” and would not be out of place on a high-energy cardio mix or on Casablancas’ solo outing Phrazes for the Young. The second single, “All The Time,” once again returns to the Strokes signature guitar heavy grind, and is almost interchangeable for any of the songs from Angles.

Reviews were mixed. NME gave Comedown Machine four out of five stars and proclaimed the album “sounds like a mixtape the Strokes made for themselves.” But not everyone was so complimentary, with Rolling Stone accusing the band of not “exactly bursting with innovative musical ideas that demand to be let loose.”

This EP — released on Casablancas’ own indie Cult Records — shows a return of the band to fully conceived songs. Each of its three songs —  “Drag Queen,” “Oblivious,” and “Threat of Joy” — represent one of the title’s time references and features collaborations between band members. Casablancas, Moretti, and Valensi penned the first track, while Hammond and the lead singer wrote the second. Sharing their love for ’80s new wave in their songwriting, this offering in its entirety feels like it could be a missing jewel from the very best of Factory Records and is a must purchase.

Featuring what may be the most appropriate and opportune title of all time, the band’s sixth studio album was four years in the making. Legendary producer Rick Rubin helped to make the band “sound like the five coolest people in New York all over again.” “Bad Decisions” and “The Adults Are Talking” capture all of the good ideas and inspirations the band have individually picked up in their almost two decades together, spinning them into instantly hummable songs. The inclusion of ballads “At The Door” and “Ode to the Mets” continue Casablancas’ love for the ’80s, as they both have the essence of early ABBA.

Such a diverse assortment of styles within one album does perfectly sum up what Casablancas recently admitted was “this wrestling match between doing cool creative things and smart marketing things.” In a world where the singer concedes that “pop music is king over art and quality because it’s all been scientifically worked out,” it’s refreshing to hear a band still willing to experiment and try something unproven.