The Strokes' The New Abnormal
Bonus points for the Jean-Michel Basquiat album cover.
The Strokes have always been cool. For most of their career, these New York City rockers have been able to carry themselves with a bravado that few in contemporary rock, save perhaps the Arctic Monkeys, have enjoyed, making them the darling of music publications and fans alike. I am not immune to their charms. For a time, I was convinced they were the only act on earth that loved Television’s Marquee Moon as much as I did, providing a deep comfort through many of the cold Cleveland winter nights of my undergraduate career.
But in the 2010s, something changed. Their fifth record, Comedown Machine, arrived stillborn (with the exceptions of “Tap Out” and “Chances”), sounding like a collection of B sides from frontman Julian Casablancas’ collaboration with Daft Punk on Random Access Memories. Then, he jumped ship for a fruitful period of experimentation with The Voidz. Guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. continued to pursue his largely excellent solo career, and The Strokes appeared interested in being anything but a band. The first proper release from The Strokes since 2013, The New Abnormal arrives as a reunion album of sorts that finds the group reaching for, and sometimes achieving, the inspired musical highs of their early discography.
Beginning with sequenced drums and the familiar staccato strumming of guitars, “The Adults Are Talking” is a reassuring start to The New Abnormal. While largely forgettable in the album’s trim track list, it is a reminder of just how expertly The Strokes can layer guitar part after guitar part to craft blissful song arrangements. “Selfless” is another such reminder, carried by a strong falsetto vocal performance from Casablancas and producer Rick Rubin’s crisp tone choices.
The cheekily titled “Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus” finds The New Abnormal hitting its stride, immediately entering with an energetic bass and synth groove buoyed by Casabalancas at his most disaffected. “I want new friends, but they don’t want me,” he sings in the song’s guitar-driven chorus, as Casabalancas struggles to come to terms with his own career by comparing it to that of the 80s bands he loved. “And the 80s bands? Oh, where did they go?,” he asks before dismissively requesting a switch the song’s chorus as a means of escape from his existential dread.
For longtime Strokes fans, early single “Bad Decisions” is sure to be a favorite. Carrying itself with all of the swagger of a vintage, Is This It-era cut, this new wave influenced track resurrects the band’s classic distorted vocal sound, thankfully without relegating Casablancas to the back of the mix. The excellent production choices continue on the sleek “Eternal Summer,” which recruits The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard and Tim Butler for, dare I say, a song that’s bass-forward grooves sound almost at home in the current disco-obsessed pop landscape.
The mopey ballad “At The Back Door” is The Strokes’ most ambitious sonic risk on The New Abnormal, and the payoff is spectacular. As Casablancas croons atop a mountain of wintery synths, the song slowly builds tension until giving way to a breathtaking baroque symphony of weeping guitars harmonies reminiscent of Queen’s “Good Company.” While seemingly an odd choice for the album’s first single given its sound, this is also its finest moment.
Emerging from the elongated and expansive synth outro of “At The Back Door,” the oddly punctuated “Why Are Sunday’s So Depressing” finds the group recalling the reggae-tinged “Automatic Stop” from Room on Fire. The result is not quite as spectacular, but the song’s sparser arrangement provides ample room for Casablancas’ continued rumination on his life through fame, love and his career.
Melancholy and nostalgia have always been The Strokes’ calling cards; the fuel they have subsisted on that has helped their music resonate so deeply with so many. In this regard, The New Abnormal’s closing tracks, “Not The Same Anymore” and “Ode To The Mets,” are more of the same, with one important wrinkle. Casablancas and company can now, from the vantage point of elder statesmen in music, finally begin to take ownership of the role they’ve played in their own mistakes and unhappiness. “So pardon the silence that you're hearing,” he sings in the epic, melodic outro of “Ode To The Mets,” perhaps pleading with fans for patience and understanding as the band begin their next chapter. “Its turnin' into a deafening, painful, shameful roar.”
Whatever form that roar takes next, The New Abnormal is the sound of The Strokes finally starting to make music they believe in again. And that is reason enough to celebrate their return.
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If you like The New Abnormal, check out:
The Cars by The Cars
Always Ascending by Franz Ferdinand
“Shoot the Runner” by Kasabian
Everything You’ve Come To Expect by The Last Shadow Puppets
Adventure by Television