I quite like The Strokes' 2020 album 'The New Abnormal'. It's really a good listen.
Which got me thinking that, up until that point, every single piece of new music The Strokes had put out since their first release I'd enjoyed less than the previous one. Every single one.
That's pretty unusual and disappointing over a 20 year period but, I guess, well done to them for halting the decline.
But really, the remarkable thing about The Strokes is that the decline includes their much-acclaimed first album. I mean, that album was a disappointment, even though it was very good.
Their first EP and then their first CD single, both of which I'd already bought and enjoyed, contained arguably their seven best songs - Last Night, Barely Legal, The Modern Age, Hard to Explain, New York City Cops, Take It or Leave It, Trying Your Luck.
So the only songs not on those first two releases, which were widely available in the summer of 2001 before the album's release, were Is This It, Soma, Someday and Alone, Together. So, some might like one or two of those songs the most, but they're not palpably and clearly better than the previous seven.
Like, I can't think of any other band that did that - that put out all their great songs before they'd even released their debut album, as if they correctly gambled that they could create 20 years of hype out of quite how brilliant they seemed like they were going to be.
Anyway, this seems very negative. Their second album is also a very good album. But they could have held something back for it and it would have been even better. Ah well, it all worked, I guess.
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