The Strokes

Item: Room on Fire
Author: Andy Odom

Room on Fire

(2003)

Reviewed by Andy Odom

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label RCA RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2003

alternative rock garage rock indie rock post-punk

As I walked into my local music/books/video store, it caught my eye: the new Strokes album, Room On Fire. I picked up a copy, looked it over, noticed the sale price, put it back and then walked away. It's not that I'm not a fan, mind you, but I hadn't visited their first album in so long, and I didn't care anymore. Don't get me wrong, it was a fine album, but it's a little too much a part of what's wrong with rock music these days. SO much of it is ironic reference rock trying to pack as much '80's jokes into it as possible; basically under-the-radar "Weird Al" albums without the mustache. Anyway, I walked to the back of the store to the magazines, and there were five, yes, FIVE, different magazines with the aforementioned band on the cover. After thumbing through a couple, I gave in. I was, for a brief moment, a regular sheep following the flock taken in by salesmen in corporate suits peddling music like miracle cure-all tonic. I bought the new Strokes album (that's right, I have to buy all my albums; I don't get them sent to me freebie-style like all those Madison Ave. jerks) and popped it in my car. And??? And it Rocks, dammit, that's what!

There's a lot being said out there about how this album is a rehash of Is This It, and to a degree it's true. The Strokes aren't treading new ground here. But as much as the first album pointed at The Past, the new album points to The Real Deal. This is a darker, more mature album. The opener, "What Ever Happened?" is a driving, but mid-tempo piece where singer Julian Casablancas screams "I want to be forgotten/I don't wanna be reminded" which sets the tone for the entire album. In "Under Control," he proclaims, "I don't want to change the world/I just want to watch it go by/I just want to watch you go by." Casablancas spends the entire record lazily singing about relationships and the world directly around him, but he doesn't want to be of the world around him. He simply wants to be there, to exist without the complexities of being too involved, knowing that he can't make a difference in the big scheme of things. This is reinforced in "Between Love and Hate," where Casablancas appears to be singing an after-breakup letter:

Never needed anybody, I never needed anybody
I never needed anybody, I never needed nobody
Don't worry about it, honey
I never needed anybody
I never needed anybody, it won't change now.

Am I wrong?
Don't sing along with me.
I said I was fine,
It's just the second time
We lost the war

He's fed up at this point, and seems fed up through the entire record, but never angry, simply resigned. He's accepted that relationships falter and fail for reasons sometimes bigger than himself, and this is just another one. There's no use in fighting the inevitable. And so he retreats back into himself, and perhaps into drugs and alcohol.

The music is tight and lively, if not a little melancholy. The rhythm section is as simple as a metronome, not dictating anything, just keeping the time for Nick Valensi's and Albert Hammond Jr.'s guitars to lay the bed for Casablancas' playfully familiar melodies. There's no departure with this album from the last album, but it works well to establish them not as a gimmick band, but as a band with a specific sound. They don't just want to represent their CD collections. The Strokes have a method, not just a sense of humor. They wanna be a good rock band, and it shows.

The Strokes aren't one hit wonders. They also aren't breaking any new ground, but so what. If the old ground still sounds this good, and if the kids mean it and aren't too busy winking at their hip 1980's references to make real art, then bring it on. This is a good ROCK album, straight up. Buy it.

4 tocks