I went to Buenos Aires my buddy Larry to visit our buddy Timmy, and if we weren't in a parrilla, he was searching for the new Strokes album. The obsession became most evident when I went to check my mail on Tim's computer and all the tabs in firefox were:
"angles leak"
"strokes angles early release"
"strokes angles forum mp3"
"strokes angles advance copy"
He would shuffle around our rental apartment after eating breakfast, then finally leave, exiting with "I'm going to go upstairs and listen to the album"... which was the 30sec snippet version of each track on youtube.
I even played my hand at it and called a couple of people since, after all, I agreed with Tim: how can a major cd release be under wraps for so long? Have the record companies figured it out? Was no human used in the manufacture and storage of these pieces of plastic?
After all that, a couple of tracks did peek out and we would sit around staring at various objects while Maccu Picchu would blast around us. Why is this so important? Simple: We want it to be the new 'Is This It?'. We want to be a stallion in college jumping up and down at a sweaty show in our sunglasses around beautiful friends and future friends... again. For a group whose public image smiles less than Thom Yorke, the Strokes are the reincarnation of the leather jacket, copious hair, converse, and the singular pair of jeans that only get washed once a month. They do everything rock and roll except elect a cab rather than chopper.
As for the album, they've chosen against the muted/distorted vocals that was (thankfully) everywhere in 'Is This It?' and picked the polished sound of First Impressions. (In contrast to Angles, First Impressions sounds a little like a modern day Scorpions but without the ballads.) Angles wins on well-placed subtleties where necessary and muted vigor elsewhere: Macchu Picchu is golden. But right now, listening to "Two Kinds of Happiness", the verses belong in Bright Lights Big City (that's a compliment), but the chorus needs to be turned down a little in favor of the rest of the album.
So til Tuesday, before you go to Twist and Shout or Reckless, you can listen to Angles here on the Strokes site.
from NME
"The best artists are the ones that work the hardest, and if you work hard enough, you'll eventually experience the happy accidents that are art. I learned that from my stepfather." - Julian Casablancas
