Tom Kinney gives his verdict on the new Strokes album, Angles, streamed online earlier this week (originally published 22 March 2011)

It’s almost a decade since The Strokes released Is This It?, an album that inspired a generation of teenagers to do away with combs, tear their jeans, and borrow their dad’s previously embarrassing leather jacket. Amidst all the hype that built up and followed their debut, it’s easy to forget just how good a record it was. The first two chords of Someday alone are enough to make even the most hardened indie kid well up with nostalgia.

After a five-year recording hiatus, Strokes fans were waiting with guarded anticipation for March 21, the official release date of fourth album Angles, when the band went all modern on us and started streaming the entire album for free on their website a week in advance. It seems The Strokes have been reading the Radiohead guidebook for releasing your album in an edgy way; make it free, online, and trick people by releasing it early.

The album bursts into life straight away with the reggae inspired Machu Picchu, full of their trademark jangly guitars, and after five years away the rather fitting opening lyric “I’m putting your patience to the test”. No shit Julian.

Current single Under Cover of Darkness follows, and it’s a brilliant song, easily the stand out track on the album, and probably their best track since Is This It?. It’s fun and stompy, like Last Nite, with wonderfully contrasting guitar parts. It sees them going right back to their basics with Casablancas trying his hardest to shred his vocal chords, and features a perfect breakdown in the middle, reminiscent of Someday.

Part of The Strokes’ appeal has always been how effortless they make things appear, from their unkempt good looks to their wonderfully simple and almost telepathic rhythm section. This album it seems has been anything but effortless, with guitarist Nick Valensi recently describing the recording process as “just awful”.

It doesn’t sound like he’s exaggerating either, with Julian Casablancas recording all of his vocals alone and away from the group, and a whole earlier session of tracks completely scrapped. When The Strokes first exploded onto the scene they made being in a band seem like the coolest thing you could ever imagine. Now it sounds about as fun as a Ken Loach film.

Angles is a mix of experimentation and classic Strokes. Unfortunately the tracks where they experiment are very hit and miss. The Thin Lizzy sounding Gratisfaction and the ‘80s electronic Two Kinds of Happiness are both brilliant and full of swagger, but the more synthy Games and Call Me Back are remarkably weak. The first of these examples is bleak and boring, with lyrics like “Living in an empty world” sapping all the energy that the previous five songs had done so well to build up.

This album sees The Strokes return to the top of their game for the most part, but far too often it falls flat for it to come close to to the album that they’ve spent the last ten years trying to better.

3/5 Stars