I give this album three out of five stars. Three stars accorded to a fifth album of a band that you loved when you were 17 is basically the easiest way to say ‘Meh’ without actually writing a one-word synopsis. Comedown Machine is good. It does all the right things, Julian hits all the right notes and the band still play tight and fast like they’ve only discovered two key signatures – ‘C’ for cool and ‘D’ for debonair. But in 2013, good isn’t good enough. Particularly when your last album was pretty a much a write-off, and the one before that was your attempt at being a stadium rock band, The Strokes seem to be burning through their nine lives pretty damn fast.
The big issue here is that for every glorious, Spoon-esque guitar bomb like Welcome To Japan there’s a hangover from Casablancas’ weird synth phase (80s Comedown Machine) or songs that are only entertaining because they sound like dead ringers for Is This It. If you tell me that Partners In Crime is not New York City Cops plus a Casio, you’re clearly not a real fan.
It’s totally reductionist to say that we only liked The Strokes when they were five dudes with guitars and white Cons, but they did much better at expanding their palette when they went production-crazy on First Impressions Of Earth than they do here. There’s still that obvious disconnect between singer and band, and it’s only getting wider as time goes on. The Strokes’ average songs used to be cause for fascination. Now they’re on the way to writing albums full of them. Probably the most apt title for a record ever.
BY JONNO SEIDLER
Best Track: All The Time
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Phrazes For The Young JULIAN CASBLANCAS, Interpol INTERPOL
In A Word: Sharp
