The New Abnormal - The Strokes (2020)

The New Abnormal: the sixth album by indie powerhouse The Strokes, and indeed their first since 2013’s The Comedown Machine. The Strokes formed in Manhattan in 1998 and shot to fame with their debut album Is This It in 2001. Is This It is considered to be one of the best albums of the noughties and is indie-rock royalty. The quality of The Strokes albums between Is This It and The New Abnormal, however, is hotly debated. All four records received critical acclaim, but all vary in fan favouritism. To justify my point, look at different “The Strokes Albums Ranked” articles – they differ massively. Either way, The Strokes are considered pioneers of the new wave/post-punk revival and indeed the noughties indie scene, influencing everyone from Arctic Monkeys to Death From Above 1979.

Now, if I were a fan of The Strokes, I would have been mildly disappointed seeing only nine tracks on an album I had been waiting seven years for. This is as deceiving as the disappointment I felt about seeing nine tracks on the Queens of the Stone Age album Villains. Both albums contain much quality and show to some extent that less can be more. The New Abnormal blends the classic Velvet Underground, post-punk inspired sound with the electronica from The Comedown Machine and the maturity from their 2016 EP Future Present Past. The record shows a progression as songwriters and a sign that the boys from New York are growing up. New wave has been a significant influence on The New Abnormal. It feels like a call to their earlier sound but comparable to The Cure’s Disintegration. Disintegration showed maturity in The Cure’s style and a progressive element, just like The New Abnormal. Tracks like ‘Bad Decisions’ and ‘The Adults Are Talking’ feature heavily modulated guitars that sound straight off a new wave B-side, but still sound like The Strokes. ‘Bad Decisions’ especially sounds like a track they could have made in the mid-2000s but have slowed it down some. ‘Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus’, the third single off The New Abnormal, is another classic Strokes song – the bouncy chorus is familiar and reminiscent of fan-favourite ‘Someday’.

The familiarity this album exhibits is what makes it so likeable. Songs like ‘Bad Decisions’ and ‘Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus’ allow for some experimentation on tracks like ‘Why Are Sundays So Depressing’. This is a song that is multi-layered and contains octave pedals and synth’s galore on the guitars. The guitars seem to blur around Julian Casablancas’ vocals to build up different textures and potentially try and distract the listener away from the fact that the track is still in 4/4 timing. This album is not perfect by a long shot though. It is not necessarily that the songs are bad; nevertheless, the thought of listening to it did not exactly conjure up any sort of excitement. All the tracks run in a similar tempo, and all feel a bit upset – ‘At The Door’ contains an electronic style riff and is very stripped back. A stark contrast from ‘Why Are Sundays So Depressing’ that uses the electronica to texture the song. ‘At The Door’ is just a slightly worse attempt at ‘Ode To The Mets’, very similar in style and builds up somewhat as it progresses, but does not quite hit the same.

The stand-out tracks for me are ‘Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus’, ‘The Adults Are Talking’ and ‘Why Are Sundays So Depressing’. ‘Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus’ contains all the things I enjoy about The Strokes songs. The aforementioned bouncy chorus as well as Casablancas’ signature blend of low conversational vocals and belted highs in the chorus epitomise The Strokes for me. ‘The Adults Are Talking’ is the opening track on The New Abnormal and sets the album off in the right way. It is one of the most exciting tracks on the album and could quickly become a staple in live sets. Further detail as to why I like ‘The Adults Are Talking’ and ‘Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus’ is mentioned above so I will not reiterate. The New Abnormal is a solid example of a post-prime album from a band that deserves to be back on top. There is strength in it and bodes well for future releases by The Strokes. In the words of Julian Casablancas himself: “we’ve been unfrozen, and we’re back” – can we expect a whole new era from one of indie’s legends? We will have to wait and see.