The Strokes

The band that started the return of the garage rock movement is back, and the New York quartet is proving once again they look cooler than they sound. The band throws some new kinks into their sound for their third album, but ultimately, the album tries to be a slice of hipster bliss, and falls flat.

This album gets off to a decent start with “You Only Live Once”, which takes on a more jangly pop sound, with lead singer Julian Casablancas’s voice providing the usual vibe. With the standout track, and lead single “Juicebox”, the Strokes work on a more gritty, more intense sound than in the past. The band actually seemed focused and inspired on this song, it has a strong bass line and gives the fans something new.

The album does have stronger guitar work in the past, courtesy of Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond, giving the band different change ups than the usual Strokes riffs, heard on virtually every other Strokes single up to this point.

Even with the guitar work being stronger in the past, a lot of the other work on the album seems uninspired. Tracks such as “Razorblade”, and “Killing Less”, do not provide anything new to its listeners. On the track “Fear of Sleep”, the song seems so light and whimsical that the listener cant help thinking about sleep.

Some other tracks, such as “Vision of Division”, sounds like the Strokes are borrowing from their contemporaries, such as Bloc Party and the Bravery, and do it fairly well. However, besides a few notable exceptions, the album doesn’t blow the listener away and they would be better off checking out the group’s first two records instead.

Grade: C+