Album Title

The Strokes

The New Abnormal (2020)

heart off icon (0 users)
Last IconTransparent icon

Album Thumb
Login to see HQ artwork


Cover NOT yet available in 4k icon
Join up for 4K upload/download access


Your Rating (Click a star below)

Star off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off iconStar off icon






















5:09
3:42
3:55
4:53
6:16
5:10
4:35
5:37
5:51

5:09
3:42
3:55
4:53
6:16
5:10
4:35
5:37
5:51

Data Complete 70%
15%


Total Rating

Star Icon (0 users)

Back Cover
Album Back Cover

CD Art
CDart Artwork

3D Case
Album 3D Case

3D Thumb
Album 3D Thumb

3D Flat
Album 3D Flat

3D Face
Album 3D Face

3D Spine
Transparent Icon

First Released

Calendar Icon 2020

Genre

Genre Icon Indie

Mood

Mood Icon Enlightened

Style

Style Icon ---

Theme

Theme Icon ---

Tempo

Speed Icon Medium

Release Format

Release Format Icon Album

Record Label Release

Speed Icon Cult Records

World Sales Figure

Sales Icon 0 copies

Album Description
Available in: Country Icon Country Icon
The New Abnormal es el sexto álbum de la banda, lanzado por Cult Records y RCA en 2020, grabado en los Shangri-La Studios de Malibú con Rick Rubin como productor.

Fue el regreso triunfal de una banda que muchos daban por disuelta, un disco introspectivo, elegante y melódico, con el aire de una reconciliación tardía. The Adults Are Talking, Bad Decisions y At the Door combinaron melancolía, groove y madurez emocional.

Ganó el Grammy a Mejor Álbum de Rock y devolvió a The Strokes al centro del mapa musical.
wiki icon


User Album Review
Last month, when The Strokes performed at the Roundhouse in London, Julian Casablancas told the rapturous crowd: “I know what people wanna hear, and I hate giving it to them.” Is this flash of self-awareness a sign that The Strokes, now all in their late thirties and early forties, are finally growing up?

It’s been 19 years since their seminal debut ‘Is This It’, and with album number six, ‘The New Abnormal’, they’re still five of the slickest white men in guitar music – but now they’re older and wiser, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “I am having a selfishly good time,” Casablancas admitted at that gig, before double-checking: “But are you also having a good time?”

The answer, applied to ‘The New Abnormal’, is an easy yes, as while the album explores a few new directions, it’s still often fairly recognisable. The best stuff sounds familiar – few people ever have, or ever will, write a better riff than that of ‘Last Nite’ – and the worst, only peppered in small amounts, feels beyond experimental, as if pointedly ignoring what everyone else in indie rock is doing to stay fresh nowadays. Instead Julian and co. often settle into an afterlife of cantankerous synths only belonging to The Strokes.

The resentment towards fan service and meeting expectations is tangible throughout the album, as ‘Room on Fire’-style bangers – the metronomic, guitar-led ‘Bad Decisions’ and ‘Why Are Sundays So Depressing’ – are sandwiched between more jarring offerings.

Take ‘Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus’ and ‘At The Door’. The former is a disco-synth bop with lively vocals and decidedly self-determining lyrics (“I want another day/I want another break/I want another start”). It’s not about what fans crave any more; these words may move you, but were ultimately written for the person who first sang them. The latter, drum-less celestial number, was the record’s first single, announcing a stark change of pace for the band. It now stands as one of the strongest tracks due to its commitment to the new mood, and some of the most contemplative lyrics. “Use me like an oar / And get yourself to shore’, Casablancas sings to someone we will never know.

The Strokes have always kept their feelings at arm’s length, but there are traces of deeper introspection on ‘The New Abnormal’. There’s striking cinematic beauty to ‘Selfless’ and ‘Not The Same Anymore’, with shades of Arctic Monkeys circa ‘Suck It And See’ (perhaps they’re returning the hat-tip Turner paid them with the opening lyrics to ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino‘: “I just wanted to be one of The Strokes”).





‘Selfless’ plays like a daydream, opening with a waltzing guitar, and there’s plain but piercing romance in Casablancas’ lyrics. “Please don’t be long/I want you now” he sings over a wailing refrain that confirms The Strokes remain some of the best riff-makers around. Casablancas’ vocals are diamond-sharp on ‘Not The Same Anymore’, as he captures the inevitably of ageing, proving he’s still underestimated as a lyricist. “Now the door slams shut/The child prisoner grows up” comes the haunting confessional.

But Casablancas can’t be kept away from his beloved ‘80s synths for too long. This is more convincing electronica than most of 2013’s ‘Comedown Machine’ offered, but still weaker than the three-for-three hit-making albums ‘Is This It’, ‘Room on Fire’ and ‘First Impressions of Earth’. ‘Eternal Summer’ is as close as this album comes to a misfire. It’s a poppy, seasonal ode with a brain-melting falsetto, a tinny chorus and workmanlike lyrics such as “summer is coming / it’s here to stay”, which would be fine they weren’t delivered quite so earnestly. It bears the messy energy of the guy nobody knows in the crowd at a festival, who caught sunstroke and let his one canned cider go to his head.

The one Strokes album that feels decidedly absent is 2011’s ‘Angles’, which surprisingly triumphed with its psychedelic influences and existential lyrics – one of the few times the Strokes successfully committed to something entirely new.

The tracks that bookend ‘The New Abnormal’ were first teased at live shows over the past year. The opening seconds of ‘The Adults Are Talking’ might scare people off with abrasive electronic drum samples, until Casablancas comes in with a mellow vocal. As it develops, it’s unmistakably top-tier stuff. The analogue beats of ‘Ode to the Mets’ promise to close the album in similar fashion, before the song blooms into a slow-burn ballad, the central riff sounding as if put through a wind machine.

There’s plenty to praise on the record, even though the listener has been certified as a second thought. Like its cover, the Jean-Michel Basquiat artwork ‘Bird On Money’, it’s spiky but quite stunning. This is a cool album, the kind you begrudgingly grow to love, even if it never cared about you. And isn’t that quintessentially The Strokes?

SOURCE: https://www.nme.com/reviews/the-strokes-the-new-abnormal-review-2640779


External Album Reviews
None...



User Comments
seperator
No comments yet...
seperator

Status
Locked icon unlocked

Rank:

External Links
MusicBrainz Large icontransparent block Amazon Large icontransparent block Metacritic Large Icon