The Strokes - Comedown Machine

It's hard to move forward when all your biggest critics complain about the fact that you refuse to stay in the past.  For The Strokes, its hard to move forward when everytime you release an album, it gets detracted.  Fans lament that Is This It was not released again, and despite the fact that there have been a lot of good material on the albums that followed (and not to mention, I would personally argue that Room on Fire is far superior to that of the band's 2001 debut), it is fair enough to say it seems as thought so many people already have the band "pegged."

For those of us who were rightfully willing to move on, the checkered past of the band since its far superior 2003 sophmore release has been a bit of a blemish as well.  The band attempted to expand its sound on its First Impressions of Earth 2006 release, and after a long, drawn out pause with a lot of side projects, name-calling, and refusal to appear together in the studio at the same time of each other, 2011's Angles.  Both albums found the band to be floundering, both with themselves and with the sound that they proved only a few years earlier that they were able to perform and create like masters of their own domiain.   While both of those albums had strong moments in their own right, there is something that should be said about the fact that maybe, just maybe, those detractors who seemed unable to appreciate the band attempting to move forward with their sound, were right.  

When The Strokes live-debuted the final track on Angles, Life is Simple in the Moonlight on Saturday Night Live, we were all excited about what this would mean for the future of this band.  The song was strong, had a lot of the classic Strokes sound, and saw the band performing together for the first time in a long time in a way that seemed to matter.  Of course, this made the studio recording on the album, a Pro Tools Frankenstein that sounds like the song was recorded in five different studios and put together by a Freshman music production class was a shock, and representative of the rest of the album as a whole.  It was a joyless affair that hardly sounded like a band, but rather five individuals who used to be in a band, approximating what it sounds like to be in a band over teleconference.

In so many ways then, Comedown Machine, to be released on the 23rd, seems like the proper follow-up to both Angles and Room on Fire.  That isn't to dismantle the importance of the third and fourth proper albums, but they lacked the cohesion, the joy, and the importance that is present on the band's debut and follow up, and finally, on their fifth album that is up and coming.  The fact that only one studio is listed on the album's production credits is a good sign, and present are all the players who made The Strokes great so many times before.  Listening to the fantastic pre-release track One Way Trigger, and to the lesser but still great, All the Time reminds us of the band that was performing only a few years ago.  It seems like after actually meeting up with each other after recording (because they were all in seperate rooms and what not during the recording) Angles, they were actually able to remember what it was to be in a band, and remember the joy of the music that they used to have.

So in a way, this album is call back to their previous glories, but at the same time, manges to push the band forward in a direction that does not sound detracting, forced, or simply for the sake of attempting to please the critics (as much of the third album was).    The band develops a much funkier, much broader sense of style on this album, and the inconsistent, but strong production of the album helps emphasize each of the stylistic changes.  Album stand out tracks, such as Tap Out,  Welcome To Japan,  50/50,  and Slow Animals, are all fantastic harbringers of the expanded style of the band.  The songs are full, funkier, and seem to bring out the best qualities of the instrumental portions of the band (which have always been strong) and are pushing Julian's vocals into new territory that he manages to excel at (and not to mention, do not sound like he recorded them in the morning after a week of binge drinking in his bedroom, as most of Angles boasted).   The album manages to keep the later half from becoming filler, and

That is not to say that the album is perfect, weak lead single All The Time is literally about 30 seconds too long (it has a 30 second fade out that is absolutely, mind-numbingly dumb), and the three and half minutes spent listening to  Call It Fate, Call It Karma are better spent rewinding the album and starting over from the opening track.   The album artwork is strange in that it appears as a promotional piece for RCA records, a relic that reminds us of just how big and reaching the Strokes used to be, and really, still are.

 However, the album is strong as a whole, and represents the best consistent work that the band has done since Room on Fire.    There may not be a single stand out track that soars to the absolute height of the band's best song, Electricityscape, and it won't "redefine" the rock world like Is This It will, and there will be plenty of people who complain that the band should stick to what it did in 2001.   However, for the interested mind who is capable of letting a band go into the future, and is capable of appreciating the strong pop-sensibility with the strong guitar interplay, with enough of a throwback to keep the band true to its sound, will love Comedown Machine. 

So here is how it boils down:  Comedown Machine is best enjoyed when you take it for what it is, the fifth Strokes album.  There is no ignoring anything in between, calling it back to anything before, or letting it be anything else other than at its face value.  The album is fantastic rite on its own, and calls the band on its best while moving the band forward in a direction that makes sense.  Welcome back.

8.5/10.