Music Reviews

After enjoying Wilbur’s „I’m in Love with an E-girl“ and „Internet has Ruined Me“, both songs featuring some surprisingly beautiful chord progressions and clever comedic bittersweet songwriting, I was pretty hyped for this album when I first got it recommended. What I EXPECTED were songs with similar sense of ironic comedy to them, with some nice crisp production. What I GOT instead was something much more personal, and dare I say mature – of corse the comedic songwriting is still present in some form or shape, but he’s taking it much more seriously this time around, and as a result, I take him more seriously.

The songwriting is probably the selling point on this album, because the production usually just features Wilbur and his guitar, doing his thing, while he pours his expiriences on us. You could even call this a concept album, the concept being his expiriences with the city he’s been living in, London. The first song, „Jubilee Line“, illustrates that perfectly, with it’s lowkey guitar melodies, slowly raising in intensity as the song progresses and the lyrics talking about blaming the city for all the strugless in his life – the song takes a rather dark turn by the end, talking about the people that commited suicicde in the city’s underground. The song sets the mood perfectly for the album with it’s direct lyrics, but still leaving some room for interpretation. The following track „Saline Sollution“ follows a similar forula as the first one, this time focusing on solving the problems the city has forced upon him. The „sollution“ we’re presented with is kind of a sarcastic one, probably taken as a methaphor: salline sollution refering to the process of drinking salted water, for either regulating normal blood levels, or just throwing-up. Instrumentally the song, again, progresses to get more intense with some aditional low-key drums and horns this time round – it’s a really powerful moment on the album. „Since I Saw Vienna“ is instrumentally probably the least intresting of the bunch, but the lyrics are what sells it here, taking a different approach to saying, that London sucks, by basically comparing it to Vienna – it has a rather nostalgic vibe to it, but overall, there isn’t much to say about this one. „Losing Face“ has a much more direct and exciting instrumentation, with some intense but laid-back guitar chords, low-key crunchy drums and some aditional guitar tones in the background, really completing the atmosphere. This song marks the lyrical shift this album takes in the second half, now more focusing on a classic love drama. The lyrics compliment the tortured vocals really well, and you can feel the emotion pouring from the track – it’s a simple, yet effective way, of conveying the song’s message, something this album in general succeeds at. „Your Sister Was Right“ continues on that note with some nice vocal layering an adding context to what actually happened between these two in the lyrics – the instrumental is rather unintresting on here, but it does it’s job. „La Jolla“ is the longest song on here and it’s a pretty good way of summing up the whole album so far – the protaganist doesn’t feel good enough and sort of defeated and just wants to escape this god-forsaken city, which can be taken as a metaphor to all his problems in general. He hopes to one day move on from everything and live his happ life – that’s why Wilbur sounds so defeated and quiet on this one. The instrumentation is again really simple, but this time it actuall compliments everyhting elese that is going on pretty well, considering the track’s more low-key and defeated sound. The final song „I’m Sorry Boris“ is Wilbur reflecting on everything that has been leading up to this point and realising, that even though the goverment is destroying the city, he has all the people he cares about here and can’t just leave them behind – instead of running from his problems, he faces them. It transitions extraordinarilly well from the last track to this one, with the first cut having a more defeated tone and this one right here showing us the brighter side of things – in other words, the perfect closer.

And yeah, that pretty much concludes the album – short, but straight to the point. I think the message of this one is something really unique and the simple sound of the album leaves a lot of room for the message to get across. Though it also leaves a lot to be desired – don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of this thing, but sometimes, when the lyrics didn’t instantly grab me in, I just became real bored real quick, and that’s essentially the biggest issue I could find with this album – sometimes it’s just not exciting enough. So yeah, I think the instrumentation could use a little bit more spice here and there, but other then that, it’s a pretty solid listen – the songwriting is there, the intensity aswell and the message comes across. So overall, not bad at all, for a first release.

strong 6/10

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