The Strokes

“It's the best kind of New York story,” began NME reviewer John Robinson before he proceeded to laud the Strokes’ critically acclaimed debut album “Is this It?” “Touching, soulful, funny, tuneful and well-written songs played by people in great clothing,” he goes on, delivering the sort of uniform praise the Strokes’ had become accustomed to. Yes, it seems with their shaggy hairdos, jean jackets, and general New York vibe the Strokes’ had quickly become the hottest band of the new millennium, and it’s not surprising that they caught a perfect score off of this reviewer on vibe alone, and I do mean vibe ALONE. “Strokes have every quality rock'n'roll requires from its finest exponents” Robinson proclaims, referring of course to the Strokes’ famous stripped down sound, which consists of just two guitars, bass, drums, and Julian Casablancas’ vocals.

What Robison doesn’t tell you is how little they do with their instruments. The guitar-play featured on the record is an unimaginative collection of all the chords and simple melodies you might learn during your second week of music lessons played at various speeds and occasionally interrupted to make room for a soulless, rudimentary, and over-rehearsed guitar solo jazzed up with a slightly bluesy bend or hammer. Drumming robot Fabrizio Moretti features two settings, angry banging and looped tempo holding that makes one wonder if he’s just an old Casio keyboard with a wig on. As for the bass, it’s a bit of an afterthought that sort of blends into the background, and you may be thinking “Well that’s what bass is supposed to do,” but the bass-lines are so simple that they sometimes don’t showcase more than four notes in an entire song, and even when they do they just copy whatever the lead guitar does.

This leads me to front-man and lyricist Julian Casablancas, whose shouty vocals are the only thing I can really enjoy on this album. I wished he’d used them more, because when he’s not shouting his singing is more like lethargic droning, that sounds like someone’s hit Iggy Pop with a tranquilizer dart, and lyrically he’s no gem either. ‘"I say the right thing/But act the wrong way", in 'Hard To Explain', is one lyric that sets the tone.’ That is the only lyric Robinson felt the need to reference. You’d think, coming from such a rich musical scene, Julian Casablancas would have something a bit more subjective to say about New York, but he instead throws in a stock lyric that would fit just as well, or slightly better, in an Avril Lavigne song.

 “It's a mood that is the backbone to the songs,” Robison goes on, incredibly, and I’ll admit that The Strokes’ do remind me of that famous New York sound, in the same way that Lee Harvey Oswald reminds me of JFK’s brains. That is, they took the New York sound and blew out all the best bits. The Strokes’ are like Television without the poetics and complex guitar-work, the Ramones without the intensity and vivacity, or the Velvet Underground without the experimentation and sleazy lyricism. They’re really more of a pop band, and they’d be a great one if the identified as such. Instead they’re basically just the Hanson Brothers if we caught them in the middle of a production of West Side Story.      

 
Original Review Here:http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-strokes/5914