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Album Review
by SashaS Herbert
23-10-2003
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| The Strokes' 'Room On Fire' artwork |
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The Strokes: 'Room On Fire'
(Rough Trade)
The Strokes step the right footwear
When Ms Fame knocks on anyone’s door, preceded by such media interest to surpass any hype record company could ever finance, it is a giant fang, like a meteor that’s on the way to destroy Earth (whenever)… So, how have The Strokes dealt with it, the eminence-monolith, weighing upon them as much as Europa? Well, not that bad, considering: it is a redress, re-press, progress; three sides of The Strokes, or left-overs, connecting songs and advancing tunes.
The Stone Roses’ sophomore album ‘Second Coming’ was six-years-in-the-making that gradually erased whatever fire it had contained on the debut. ‘Room On Fire’ comes just two years after the breakthrough disc and it is a solid record that has its moments, some less so and it attempts to experiment. It is not going to save us [to be fair to the Con-wearing quintet, they never said they set out to do it] from whatever cultural calamity is deemed to be the ‘terminator’ this week, neither to change the world (ditto), nor it is an attack from the rock trenches.
The Strokes have used the past as a template and clichés to break stereotypes, if that makes any sense. (Yeah, after a bottle of malt! – Booze Ed.) They are happy with their sound-source of the 1970s New York punk that elements of soulfulness and a touch of reggae have penetrated in meanwhile. It is strange that this band ever contemplated, far from trying, working with Radiohead’s producer, Nigel Goodrich, before going back to the man-behind-knobs of their debut/breakthrough ‘Is This It’, Gordon Raphael.
The reason being the band’s belief that playing for real is everything and fix almost nothing but balance the sound in the mix. (Now, that balancing is a letdown here on too many tracks Julian Casablancas’s vocal is too deep in the mix to make it just, regrettably, another ‘instrument’.) Confidently kicking in with ‘What Ever Happened?’ – complex rhythm, tense guitars and handclaps with vocal erupting, “I want to be forgotten/And I don’t want to be reminded”, is a cry for a bit less attention and the ensuing pressure. These boys would like to make music without the added baggage. (Tough chance, doods.)
A couple of songs, ‘Meet Me In The Bathroom’ and ‘Between Love & Hate’ (then known as ‘Ze Newie’) were performed on the band’s last tour; ‘Automatic Stop’ is a flirtation with reggae, a tad dubious, ‘You Talk Way Too Much’ and ‘Reptilia’ are The Strokes we encountered before, but latter part of this all-too-short (31 minutes) CD picks its pace up, in particular ‘The Way It Is’, a large-proportioned rocker with peddle-to-the-metal attitude and, the closing, ‘I Can’t Win’, probably the catchiest thing they’ve canned. Man.
One has impression that ‘Room On Fire’ has been expected with the same eagerness as Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ and thus a bitch to live up to it. The Strokes fare much better than initially feared: a consolidation disc, a distillation and refining of their style, this is it… So, if you’re looking for different Strokes, this can sustain a sizeable campfire. As the Basement Jaxx may like to say, “Kish kash kush.”
7½/10
SashaS Herbert
23-10-2003
The Strokes’ album ‘Room On Fire’ is released 20 October 2003 on BMG
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