Turn it up: The Strokes – Angles (RCA)
After reading a bunch of negative reviews of the Strokes’ latest album, Angles, it was something I had to check out for myself. The New York Times said on Monday in a review of the Strokes’ Madison Square Garden gig that the entire band’s career has been more about trying to stay relevant than it is making music. Pitchfork Media, a site who seems to have made a career out of ruining bands after their first album, gave Angles a 5.9 out of 10, which looks like a failing grade to me. But after a few listens of Angles, I came to a quick conclusion:
Screw those reviewers. Screw them all.
Here’s the quick and dirty truth about the Strokes’ new album in just two words: it rocks. While a lot of the band’s influences seemed to range from the ’50s to the ’70s earlier in their career, that has changed with Angles.
The band has discovered the ‘80s, and as a result, Angles sounds a lot less Velvet Underground and a lot more Elvis Costello, who joined the band as a surprise opener on the April 1st MSG gig and sang backup vocals on Angles’ track “Taken for a Fool.”
“Machu Picchu” is the poppy opening track that blends reggae and new-wave tones with the signature Strokes sound, which usually features singer Julian Casablancas’ mumbling croons under two evenly-fuzzy and minimalistic guitars. The end of “Machu Picchu” launches the listener right into “Under Cover of Darkness,” the first single from Angles, and the album is a solid piece of rock ‘n’ roll from then on out. The band dabbles with some different sounding drum tones in very-gated snare drums and synthesized beats. And a lot of the harmonized guitar riffs squeal “The ‘80s are cool again!” Screw the naysayers and grab a copy of Angles as soon as you can.
Turn it down: The National – “Think You Can Wait” (4AD)
The National put out one of last year’s best albums when it released the beautiful, melodramatic High Violet. The band’s been nothing short of a whirlwind since then. Its toured all over the world since the album’s release and doesn’t plan on stopping.
In the next few months, The National will play shows in Italy, the U.K., Holland and Slovenia, and the band’s time on the road ends in September at the soonest. All of this success came from building momentum from High Violet with long tours, tons of internet hype and TV appearances, all of which secured a No. 3 spot for the album on the Billboard charts in its first week.
But The National’s latest single, a contribution to the Paul Giamatti-starred, Tom McCarthy-directed Win Win, sounds as tired as the members of this band have to be. “Think You Can Wait” is a mellow, bummer of a track, something that isn’t new for The National, but it lacks the intensity the band has been known to capture in said mellow, bummer tunes.
Singer Matt Berninger’s baritone doesn’t sound sweet and sad like key High Violet tracks like “Conversation 16” or “Terrible Love.” In fact, the guy that once sang about being bored in a middle class job now sounds like he’s bored with his rock star job. For such a hard working band, it might be time to indulge in the luxury of success to give itself a much-needed break.
