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 Post subject: K/Ranks 2006 - The Strokes 'First Impressions Of Earth'
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:22 pm 
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UPDATE 1 Jan 8th 2006

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Lauded on arrival, chided for hanging around, The Strokes find themselves in a curious position in 2006. Not commercial viable enough to truly appeal to the mainstream while, seemingly, chewed up and spat out by the indie cognoscenti after patchy follow up ‘Room On Fire’, the band find themselves racked by uncertainty; an uncertainty that finds its way on to the silicon pits of ‘First Impressions of Earth’.

In an all-to-rare glimpse of humour, The Strokes third LP launches into an opening near identical to Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ (almost certainly the albums theme, given Casablanca’s mostly resentful and wearied lyrics) before ‘You Only Live Once’ tangents off into more familiar Strokes territory.

Elsewhere, amongst the generally strong opening tracks, the albums first single ‘Juicebox’ gives up the simple yet effective guitar interplay of Messrs Valenti and Hammond in favour of a heavier, bass tone while ‘Razorblade’s rubberyness evokes the simple pleasure of twanging an elastic band and is perhaps, as such, the album highlight.

Despite featuring Julian Casablanca’s smile raising “Don’t be a coconut”, ‘Ask Me Anything’ marks a mid-album dip in quality that only briefly spikes when the aforementioned Casablanca finally lets rip on ‘Fear of Sleep’ with the impressive rock vocals he generally tries so hard to disguise behind unenthused mumbling. Disappointingly though, the album immediately ebbs off once more with the messy, ill-conceived Shane McGowanism of ’15 Minutes’.

Any concerns over First Impressions Of Earth though, are travailed as the album comes to an end. ‘Size of the World’ marks a steep artistic ascent, ‘Evening Sun’ recalls favourably the vulnerability of ‘Trying Your Luck’ from the debut album while closer ‘Red Light’ is classic Strokes, utilising almost insultingly simple riffs to let loose swirling catchy angst.

In the end any questions on The Strokes uncertain legacy are neither affirmed or denied by this release. A step down in quality from both their debut and the underated ‘Rooms On Fire’, ‘First Impressions of Earth’ still stands shoulders over most of their competitors and as such gives little impression as to where The Strokes coasting talent might go from here.


The Strokes ‘First Impressions Of Earth’ scores 7.07 and enters Konstantiranks at no.1

RELATED LINKS

Find out more about The Strokes here
>>> http://www.thestrokes.com

KONSTANTIRANKS 2006 (CURRENT STANDINGS)

1. the strokes - FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH 7.07

tbr the high dials - 'THE WAR OF THE WAKING PHANTOMS'

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Last edited by Evil Dr. K on Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:13 pm 
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i would disagree
and i say this is the best of the three

finally they play their instruments
vocals pushed a little more than previous albums

and "vision of division" is the jam

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:20 pm 
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catswilleatyou Wrote:
i would disagree
and i say this is the best of the three

finally they play their instruments
vocals pushed a little more than previous albums

and "vision of division" is the jam


It's not that unusual to completely disagree with my opinions. :D

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