New Wave Outpost Forum

It's out today at long last! You can sample the whole album on iTunes. I'm really liking their new vocal style especially. I was getting kinda tired of their somewhat constipated or overly processed vocal mix. This is very refreshing. Don't know about the album as a whole yet.

iTunes is out for me for a while (really need a new laptop but I'm not making any big expenditures until this whole wedding thing is over) . . . so I think I need to amble out to Borders after dinner and get this!!!

So after I bought this from the tattooed and pierced guy at Borders, who looked shocked that an old lady would buy this--

With the funkier beats and without the overprocessed vocals, this album sounds like--

FRANZ FERDINAND

OK, that's not the case for the whole album but on track 2 I actually had to bonk myself on the head and make sure I put the right CD in. Lots of the Strokes trademark guitar, cool Middle-Eastern themed guitar solo, a rip-off of the "Mandy" melody, some guitars that were crashing and ringing and almost Big Country bagpipe-y.

I need a few more listens, but so far me likee.

Dude! I'm mean, dudette! I made that connection as soon as you responded to this post. Franz sprung right to mind. But different too. Better than Franz's last album as well. It's not quite so frenetic. There's more space, some measuredness. I like it!

What am I missing here?

I sampled the album, then saw this post, then sampled it again.

It still sounds like, well, The Strokes.

Not that it's a bad album but for my money there are more exciting things out there.

Nothing new or groundbreaking here. Just a continuation of what they did on the first two albums. What was an interesting sound initially has now gotten old. Only now, except for the melodic "Ize of the World", the catchy hooks are missing.

I hope I'm wrong but other than the noted exception nothing on this record grabs me like their initial two releases. Maybe it's just my unrefined musical taste.

But you know what they say, you've got your whole life to come up with your first album. Any good ideas left over make it on the second one. Then you've got to come up with something for the third.

The mantra for this record could be (as is repeated so many times on track 7- Ask Me Anything), "I've got nothing to say".

Nothing new anyway.

I've sat with this for awhile now and can genuinely say I like it. It's a bit of a grower. The Strokes aren't the most exciting thing happening now will their save the musical world - I don't think they intend to. But hats off to anyone making good music I can listen to these days. The album is a breath of fresh aire compared to their last offering - I never liked their overly processed vocals. This seems fresh and loose. Good album.

The album sounds OK but when The Strokes came to Argentina and played 4 of the songs live.. mmmm,they lacked emotion. In fact the only two songs of that show that were played with enthusiasm were "Last night" and "Hard to explain".

Mercedes

Great album. I've got it little late. There are some really surprising exotic moments.