What can happen in 39 minutes? In this fifth studio release from The Strokes, the New Yorkers manage to pack in as many genres as possible into eleven tracks, leaving 39 minutes brimming with musical exploration. For something so short, it takes a bit of getting used to. So this review comes with a bit of a heads up: anyone hoping that Comedown Machine would see The Strokes recreate the energy they once had with their debut Is This It, maybe look elsewhere. This album sounds the least like The Strokes we came to know 12 years ago, differing again from the mildly received 2011 release Angles, which didn’t leave any great impressions (name three songs from that album, anyone?). But maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
This album is a bit like a juicy steak- once cooked, it needs a bit of resting time before you can really get stuck into it. On first listen there is no such thing as a stand out track – you find your way trying to wade through it, hearing glimpses of Albert Hammond Jr’s brilliant guitar here and a snippet of Casablancas singing with that deep drawl he made so famous in their garage rock sounding days. But by the end you can’t really tell where one song starts and another ends. Hang in there.
Second, third, fourth listen and things start to fall into place, and you can even begin to categorise the songs: those with hints of their hey days (‘50+50’ and ‘All The Time’ will satisfy The Strokes purists out there); those electro tracks with some experimental falsetto by Julian Casablancas that may take a couple of listens to get used to (‘One Way Trigger’ and ‘Call it Fate, Call it Karma’) and those solid rock tracks that show The Strokes still know how to make a good rock song (‘Tap Out’ and ‘Partners in Crime’). Granted, there are some tracks that kind of just sit there, not getting any warmer the more times you listen (‘Slow Animals’ springs to mind here) but that’s not enough to not give this album a chance. Just don’t expect anything completely ground breaking here, it’s more of a slow burner.
RCA
6/10
Reviewer: Shelby Houghton