Strokes’ Angles delights, falls slightly flat

If you can identify with the former group, you will find Angles to be a satisfying rock-n-roll treat. Otherwise, Anglesis not exactly an instant classic.

The album was named for its atypical process of creation. Although frontman Julian Casablancas was the sole songwriter for the first three albums, each Stroke contributed substantially to Angles, allowing the music to be created from several different perspectives and musical styles. In fact, Casablancas was present rarely during the writing and recording of songs. In an interview with Pitchfork, the ever passive-aggressive Casablancas called the album "Operation Make Everyone Satisfied."

Unsurprisingly, this separation caused some tension in the band.

"I won’t do the next album we make like this. No way. It was awful- just awful… working in a fractured way [and] not having a singer there. I’d show up certain days and do guitar takes by myself, just me and the engineer. Seventy-five percent of this album felt like it was done together and the rest of it was left hanging, like some of us were picking up the scraps and trying to finish a puzzle together," Nick Valensi, lead guitarist, said in the same interview.

Given the extremely high expectations of the fans and the conflict in the album’s creation, listeners of the album might not be disappointed, though they will be a bit underwhelmed. Whereas all 36 minutes of The Strokes’ first album Is This It almost tackle the audience with their explosive guitar-led sound, Angles is much more polished. This is an improvement, you might assume, because The Strokes are maturing. In reality, this more sophisticated sound retracts from the neo-garage energy that The Strokes so brilliantly mastered in their first two albums. The album’s fifth track, "Taken for a Fool," is perhaps the only song that sounds quintessentially Strokes.

Most tracks explode with an energy reminiscent of Is This It, though this new energy lacks a raw authenticity. Instead, the songs tend to be more complex (and more altered by production) than early Strokes hits. The first single, "Under the Cover of Darkness" perfectly demonstrates this shift in style. It is distinctly a Strokes song–that is, a jumpy rock number–but it’s much more refined than The Strokes’ first single from 2001, "Last Night," for instance.

The band does not hesitate to experiment with new genres of influence. "Two Kinds of Happiness" is essentially what the 1980s should have sounded like, and the opening number "Machu Picchu" would fit well in a reggae compilation. As always, Casablancas’ vocals are wonderfully gritty and dark one moment, and suddenly soulful the next; in other words, his voice is irresistible, though, this is nothing new. The lyrics also remain as beautifully puzzling as ever: "Animals on TV singing about something they once felt," Casablancas croons in one of the album’s best, "Life is Simple in the Moonlight." However, a couple of tracks seem to reflect the disconnect of the album’s recording process. The angry, scrapped-together sound of "You’re So Right," for example, seems out of place on Angles.

The verdict? Angles is good. Admittedly, even the least impressive work of The Strokes is better than the majority of "music" that passes for rock today. The problem with Angles is that it fails to reach perfection, landing just short of our expectations. All songs considered, Angles simply doesn’t deliver the effortless fun that gave The Strokes their original genius.

Kasia Kovacs can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.