REVIEWS
THE STROKES The New Abnormal Even if The Strokes never released another note of good music again, history would still remember them as the band who changed everything. Strolling into view as the millennial bells clanged a new era into existence, they gifted the world with flawless debut ‘Is This It’ before 2001 was out and inspired a new, invigorated tribe in their wake. From dishevelled head down to Converse-clad toe,
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(Cult / Columbia)
you can thank Julian, Nick, Albert, Nikolai and Fab for basically every good indie band that’s come since. It’s why, though the quintet haven’t released a truly great album since 2006’s ‘First Impressions of Earth’, they still elicit more blind, fervent faith than most. Yet, from 2013’s disjointed full band effort ‘Comedown Machine’ through his abrasive subsequent project with The
Voidz, in recent years there’s no-one Julian Casablancas has seemed to want to be less than Julian Casablancas from The Strokes. That is, until now. Because, from the first needling burst of Albert Hammond Jr’s instantly-recognisable fretwork on opener ‘The Adults Are Taking Over’, ‘The New Abnormal’ feels like the legendary New Yorkers finally having fun, loosening up and learning to love what
