Music Reviews

After their last studio album „Comedown Machine“ in 2013, the band decided to take a much needed break – they’ve been releasing albums basically every 2 years for the last decade. But now they came back, better then before and I’d just like to say, that this is easily their best album since their debut „Is This It“ in 2000.

The sounds on this new projects over here feel nostalgic yet brand new and fresh. For example the song „Eternal Summer“ is one of the most beautiful sounding songs I’ve heard all year. The whole thing kicks off with the song „Adults Are Talking“, which is this care-free vibe of a song, that perfectly sets the mood for the whole album. Julian Casablancas, as always, absolutely kills it on the vocals, not only on this song, but through out this whole project. The follow up song „Selfless“ sounds somehow even better then the previous song, with its luscious keys and sharp drums – and when the guitar kicks in, you just feel like you transcended.“Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus“ starts off with those cheap sounding synnths, which made me a little worried at first, but then the whole instrumentation kicks in and all the worrying sudenly goes away. „Bad Decision“ is probably the most forgetable song on here, I genuenly can’t recall how it sounds without playing it first – how was it a single instead of something like Eternal Summer, I will never get. The actual first single was „At The Door“, which is a heavily synth/based ballad with little to no drums or any instrumentation what’s so ever – the real selling point here are Casablancas vocals, but you could basically say that for any track on this album. On the other hand „Why Are Sundays So Depressing“ sounds exactly how the title sudgests – depressing, but also somehow still care-free. „Not The Same Anymore“ is a more slow paced track with a somehow haunting twist on it. One of my favorites songs on the album though has to be the closer „Ode To The Mets“ – it starts off similary as Brooklyn Bridge, but somehow even more cheap sounding – but then those walls of beautiful guitars slowly start fading in and you just know that you’re in for something. The melodies on this track are absolutely gorgeous and honestly out of this world.

And that’s it, that’s all there is to this album – 9 ok to amazing tracks, and it’s more then enough. Honestly the 7 year wait has really shown on this one – the sound of this thing feels really mature and the tracks are overall well put together. The long break has really paid off for The Strokes and we can only wait to see, where they go from here.

Strong 8/10