The Strokes are a band from New York, led by
singer Julian Casablancas and guitarist Albert Hammond,
that became a sensation in Britain with
the single Hard To Explain/ New York City Cops, the EP
The Modern Age (Rough Trade, 2000), and the album
Is This It (RCA, 2001).
While a few songs of the album try to rock out
(The Modern Age, which is
a photocopy of Velvet Underground and
Modern Lovers, Barely Legal,
Hard To Explain, the blues-rock rigmarole New York City Cops),
the majority
dwells comfortably in a genre of pop balladry that borrows riffs and rhythms
from the classics while relying on very basic melodies:
Is This It, that apes the atonal lo-fi pop of the 1980s;
the bouncy and spirited Someday;
the ska with progression a` la Cheap Trick of Last Nite.
Nick Valensi's and Albert Hammond's predictable guitar workouts and a
formidable rhythm section (bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti) provide the ideal balance of dejavu and fashionable.
Despite the hype that surrounded its release,
Room On Fire (Rough Trade, 2003) was only a timid, derivative
collection of average-sounding songs.
The effervescent Between Love and Hate and 12.51
picked up where their singles left off, and
You Talk Way Too Much continued the Strokes' obsession for redeeming
the Velvet Underground.
Embarrassing ventures into genres such as reggae (Automatic Stop),
funk (What Ever Happened), ska (Automatic Stop),
soul (Under Control), attest to the bands' limited skills.
The End Has No End, which "boldly" crosses Michael Jackson's Billie Jean and Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child O Mine, says it all.
This is mostly generic rock'n'roll (Meet Me In The Bathroom,
The Way It Is, I Can't Win).
There is virtually no musical depth in this album.
This is as challenging as Britney Spears.
There are few moments on
First Impressions of Earth (RCA, 2006) that recall the past:
Juicebox and You Only Live Once being the best ones.
But Electricityscape, Heart In A Cage and the naked
ballad Ask Me Anything
add arena-rock or MOR touches that are reminiscent of U2 and other
moronic-pop acts. The second half of the album is haphazard at best,
relying too much on mediocre lyrics.
The band, for whom originality was never an asset, has lost quite a bit
of its verve. Less filler (this album is almost twice longer than their debut)
might have justified the effort to smooth out
and calm down the music, but so much filler makes one think that maybe
writing/singing filler is precisely what the Strokes' second phase is going to
be about.
"Heart in a Cage" and "Razorblade"
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Luca Battistini)
Gli Strokes sono una band di New York guidata dal cantante Julian
Casablancas e dal chitarrista Albert Hammond, diventati una
sensazione in Gran Bretagna con il singolo Hard To Explain/ New
York City Cops e l'album
Is This It (RCA, 2001).
Mentre poche canzoni (The Modern Age) puntano al rock, la
maggior parte
indugia comodamente in un pop che prende in prestito riff e ritmiche
da Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground e Television
(Is This It, Last Nite, Someday, Hard To
Explain).
(Translation by/ Tradotto da Massimiliano Monteverdi)
Nonostante l’incredibile hype che ha accompagnato la sua pubblicazione, Room On Fire (Rough Trade, 2003) è una pallida e derivativa raccolta di canzoni al massimo modeste. L’effervescente Between Love and Hate e 12.51 riprendono il filo del discorso iniziato con i singoli dell’album precedente, mentre You Talk Way Too Much è il trionfo dell’idea fissa del gruppo, proteso alla redenzione dei Velvet Underground dai loro eccessi. Imbarazzanti escursioni in generi disparati come il reggae (Automatic Stop), il funk (What Ever Happened), lo ska (Automatic Stop), il soul (Under Control) danno prova delle limitate capacità del gruppo. The End Has No End, che azzarda l’ibridazione di Billie Jean con Sweet Child O Mine, si commenta da sola. Canzoni come Meet Me In The Bathroom, The Way It Is, e I Can't Win sono solo rock'n'roll senza alcuna personalità. Tutto ciò può rivaleggiare solo con lo spessore esistenziale e l’audacia artistica di Britney Spears
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