It’s official – I must live on another planet, because I missed the music industry hype around the Strokes’ second album, released in 2003. I gather that some of the fans accumuated from their first album in 2001 didn’t dig this one, but as I haven’t heard that one, I really enjoyed Room On Fire. Its eleven songs are compact, economical morsels of catchy-as-hell power pop with almost insanely hummable hooks.
I seldom just fall all over myself fawning over an album, but there simply isn’t a lame song on this disc. “What Ever Happened?” is almost deceptively easygoing as an opening number, but it’s chased down by one of the album’s strongest songs, “Reptilia”, which sees this very small band getting a very big sound. Lead man Julian Casablancas may not have a voice that’s to everyone’s taste, but it grew on me. The guy can sing, but on some songs he sees fit to scream instead – and with repeated listening, I’ve come to the conclusion that his instincts are usually right on the money. “Reptilia”, for example, wouldn’t be quite the same without it.
“Repitilia” is a straight-out-of-the-70s, straight ahead hard rocker, while “Between Love And Hate” and “Automatic Stop” almost show the tiniest hints of reggae influence. “Under Control” takes a few 50s-style riffs and runs them all through heavy distortion. “12:51”, the song whose video was played out as a lost scene from Tron*, almost sounds like the Cars’ first two albums, only the “synth” sounds are actually coming from a guitar. Which brings me to another point – for a five-piece band, and a young one at that, the Strokes are impeccably tight. Actually, at first I typed “impossibly tight.” And I’m not sure that’s wrong either. Instrumentally, they’re a fantastic band.
It wasn’t until after I wrote the bulk of this review that I looked around, saw that there seemed to be some “received wisdom” that this album didn’t live up to the debut, and adjusted things accordingly – meaning I made a mention that some folks see a sophomore slump here, but I certainly don’t. Since I’m evidently listening to the Strokes’ discography backwards, I hope that their first album was as good as Room On Fire, because nothing about this one is lacking to my ears.
- What Ever Happened? (2:50)
- Reptilia (3:39)
- Automatic Stop (3:27)
- 12:51 (2:26)
- You Talk Way Too Much (3:00)
- Between Love And Hate (3:09)
- Meet Me In The Bathroom (2:53)
- Under Control (3:02)
- The End Has No End (3:04)
- The Way It Is (2:21)
- I Can’t Win (2:35)
Released by: RCA
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 32:26
* In addition to the Tron video, the artwork on the “Reptilia” CD single was the marquee artwork from Atari’s arcade game Centipede. I think I spot a trend…