We’ve got a big one today, ladies and gentlemen. Indie rock titans The Strokes are back with The New Abnormal, their sixth studio album, and their first in seven years. Ever since The Strokes burst onto the scene with Is This It nearly 20 years ago, rock fans and critics alike have been in love with the band’s revivalist take on 60s and 70s garage rock. All things considered, The Strokes have had an extremely solid five album run. Even if First Impressions of Earth was slightly lackluster when compared to the other four, even that album was pretty good. So how does The New Abnormal measure up?
As one might have expected, The New Abnormal continues in the new wave direction the Strokes have explored on their previous two releases. Synths and keys are found front and center throughout, and contrast pretty well against the fuzzy, garage rock guitar work. Instrumentally, this album is as solid as we have come to expect from The Strokes. The synths and guitars constantly battle each other with catchy countermelodies, while the bass and drums faithfully thump on, keeping this album sonically true to the natural groove that the band has always used fully to their advantage. The Strokes worked with legendary producer Rick Rubin on this album, a personnel addition that one might think would leave a distinct sonic fingerprint on the finished product. But oddly enough, on the production side, The New Abnormal really just sounds like every other Strokes album. Don’t get me wrong, the raw, rough approach The Strokes have always taken to production has always complimented their style quite nicely, but it’s still strange how little having Rick Rubin’s name on the project seems to add.
So what about the songs? Well, this is where we encounter some of the major issues with The New Abnormal. When The Strokes debuted with Is This It, they won fans and critics over with their raw, raucous, old-school approach to writing great indie rock (and unfortunately, when your first showing is a 10/10 instant classic, the rest of your works to follow will forever be compared to it). With this album, we really don’t hear much of that at all. The vast majority of the album’s runtime is consumed by mid-tempo slowburners and a number of outright ballads. Most of these songs are fine, and even good on their own merits, but together, they add up to a listening experience that can really drag. This sensation is only amplified by the fact that the majority of these songs are over five minutes long, and really don’t need to be. On Is This It, there isn’t a single song that even hits the four-minute mark, and this shorter song format really worked for the band’s chaotic, sporadic style. On The New Abnormal, there are only two songs that clock in at under four minutes, “Selfless” and “Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus,” and these are the best two songs on the album. While these are pretty chill, mid-tempo songs, they at least have remnants of the band’s soul, good songwriting, and pleasing hooks. “Bad Decisions” is also a delightfully catchy tune, if only because the band can’t seem to decide whether to rip off “I Melt With You” by Modern English, or “Dancing With Myself” by Billy Idol.
While most of these songs are fairly neutral, and even passable, there are some real duds here. The worst offender is “Eternal Summer,” a gutless, generic regurgitation of every indie pop song from the past decade. It’s a moody summer tune, featuring obnoxious falsetto vocals from Julian Casablancas, and backed up by a painfully stiff attempt by the band at being funky. Like I said, instrumentally, this album is mostly really solid, but this song is unforgivable. I mean, what do The Strokes really have to gain from challenging the X Ambassadors for their “Lamest Talking Heads Impression” award? Almost equally frustrating is the opening track, “The Adults Are Talking.” We are sucked into the album with a soft but promising build up, immediately reminding of the band’s beloved hit “Reptilia.” Eventually the verse builds up to a lame chorus that is barely higher octane than the verse. And this really sets the stage for the rest of the album, which offers very little dynamic payoff. This song is also bogged down pretty severely by a stiff, and frankly uninterested vocal performance by Julian Casablancas, and lyrics that hint at being purposeful and politically charged, but then spin off in nonsensical, pseudo-meaningful directions of almost Oasis-like proportions. Apart from “Selfless,” which is a truly endearing love ballad, this is the closest the lyrics on this album come to making any sense.
At the beginning of this review, I stated that The Strokes didn’t have a bad album. So do I still feel that this is the case? Well, yes. Overall, this really wasn’t bad. But that being said, I really wish I liked it more than I do. There are definitely songs here that break out of the monotonous, mid-tempo sludge, but with few exceptions, even these songs don’t measure up to the band’s classics. And while these songs put together make for a pretty slow, even boring experience, I can at least say that a couple total throwaways aside, most of these songs are fairly enjoyable on their own. Overall not a bad batch of songs, but I must say that I expect better from The Strokes. I fully expect most critics to gush over this album, simply because it’s The Strokes, but I reserve the right to hold this band to a higher standard.
Score: 6/10
Favorite Song(s): Selfless, Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus, Bad Decisions
Least Favorite Song(s): Eternal Summer, The Adults Are Talking, At The Door
Phil Klinker Music Reviews 