In pop art, acts of grave-robbing and cradle-snatching go largely unpunished. The Strokes are not what you’d call the most original of bands, but they’ve always excelled at petty larcenies. Is This It married the Velvets/Ramones’ rudimentary-my-dear-Watson approach to Iggy’s Mr Distorto act and a little Anglophile jangle a la Robert and The Smiths. The follow up, Room On Fire, was a bloody-minded and unjustly poor-mouthed record that hitched The Cars to Some Girls and siphoned Tom Verlaine’s beads of mercury guitar when all else (Interpol, Franz) were mimicking Richard Lloyd’s stabbing rhythm hand.
And now, for their next trick, the quintet have diversified even further and taken as their oracle – Barry Manilow?
Forgive the facetiousness, but surely someone on the Strokes payroll might’ve pointed out that the chorus of ‘Razor Blade’ is a ringer for Baz’s sob-along torch song/Peter Mandelson tribute ‘Mandy’. It’s testimony to the band’s verve that the tune survives the association with some style.
More the point, First Impressioms suggests that little birdies have been whispering career counsel in their collective ear. Trusted soundman Gordon Raphael has been replaced on most of the tracks by journeyman pro David Kahne (Bangles, Stevie Nicks, Sugar Ray) and the mix comes courtesy of Nevermind master Andy Wallace. The general impression is of a combo who’ve been indulged their art-house period, now it’s time to cough up the blockbuster.
For that, you need killer tunes. Not just choruses and riffs, which they’ve always plied aplenty, but verses, intros, outros and middle-eights all piled on top of each other until the cumulative weight results in a Rumours, Funeral, The Pretenders or Parallel Lines. In other words, kick out the jams and unrealised ideas in compositional bootcamp.
First Impressions might not deliver on such lofty levels, but it comes way closer than The Strokes’ detractors might care to admit. Having grown self-conscious about the simplicity of the songs that made them popular, they’ve evolved into quite an accomplished playing ensemble, albeit one operating in a genre where economy equates with class more often than flashy musicianship. But it works.
Opener ‘You Only Live Once’ is a little beaut: choppy guitars, confident rhythms and Julian mimicking the great stick insect vocalists of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s nexus (Ocasek, Byrne, Verlaine). The single ‘Juicebox’ sees the guitar players get their hands dirty on a metallic Cramps/Elevators riff, while ‘Vision Of Division’ features a scorching raga-rock solo to match ‘Eight Miles High’.
Okay, sometimes the virtuosic stuff misfires. Always beware rock bands playing in 6/8 time, a meter that generally produces more crap trad-rock rambles and longwinded prog romps than pop nuggets. Accordingly, ‘Heart In A Cage’ sounds like a rehearsal-room warm-up cribbed from Chinatown-era Lizzy, while ‘Red Light’ is slight as a cipher.
But mostly, they put the tunes front and centre. ‘On The Other Side’ is a white reggae groove built around an insanely catchy bass-line and vocal hook, and ‘Ask Me Anything’ is a beautifully understated mock baroque/minimalist arrangement (if that makes any sense) that is equal parts Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass. You like them apples of eclecticism? Here’s more: ‘Electricityscape’ is vintage blue-neon Blondie, replete with Chris and Clem frills and fills, while ‘15 Minutes’ features Julian as a Manhattan Shane MacGowan fronting the Patti Smith Group. There’s even a lovely Charlie Christian-type jazz break on ‘Ize Of The World’.
First Impressions has been getting mixed reviews across the board, many of them somewhat bafflingly suggesting that The Strokes have run out of ideas. Put it down to rushed write-ups filed under crushing Christmas deadlines. If this were a new band’s debut, it’d be hosanna’d in the highest.