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I love it. I hate it. Bring it over here. Make it go away. It’s hard to get an immediate handle on FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH, the third and latest proper release by The Strokes. The initial reports that were issued by the band during the recording of this long-anticipated release indicated that they were doing some things differently, and indeed they have. The major change concerns the place in the mix of Julian Casablancas’ vocals. Rather than treating them as another instrument Casablancas’ has been moved up to the front, warts and all. The result is a challenge; Casablancas’ does not have a wide vocal range --- Lou Reed will forever and always be his base reference point --- but ultimately, he does a fine job with what he’s got. He’s got a quality to is voice which successfully translates the feeling of being really, really drugged out, but still being able to walk home from a club in an unfriendly neighborhood. Maybe.
The band as a unit, however, takes a lot of chances on FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH as well, however. Rather than blatantly swiping what has gone before from classic rock tunes of yore, the cuts on FIRST IMRESSIONS OF EARTH evoke, rather than imitate, The Strokes’ influences. I keep playing, for example, “Heart In A Cage;” maybe it’s the occasional metronome drumbeat, but in the back of my mind I can hear Debbie Harry singing this, even though it doesn’t sound like any Blondie tune with which I’m familiar. They pull off a similar trick with “Electricityscape,” and do a fine job of it, as well. There are downsides to the FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH, but there isn’t a cut that doesn’t have at least something to recommend it. “Razorblade,” for example, drives me crazy. The first time through it made me want to smack somebody. It was like being stuck in a small room with a really irritating little kid, who, just when he’s about to jump on your last nerve, does something endearing, like breaks his last cookie in half to share it with you. As a result you have mixed feelings: you wouldn’t let him wander out into traffic, but you wouldn’t want to babysit him for a weekend either. And then you have the uneven but ultimately sinister “On The Other Side.” Not to be confused with The New Seekers’ song, “On The Other Side” is an almost-perfect encapsulation of the whole vicious cycle which occurs when you begin feeding the maw of a mental disorder with a controlled substance, yes indeedy. All is not dark, however, or at least so dark; “Ask Me Anything” is what you would get if Lou Reed had fronted The Left Banke with Mike Brown, and “15 Minutes” reminds me of a druggy cover of “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald” until it abruptly speeds up into a breakneck tempo which surprises and --- dare I say it? --- delights.
There is, in fact, a surprise in nearly every track of FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH, from the Yardbirds-type riff in the middle of “Vision of Division” (it lands somewhere between “Shapes of Things” and “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago,” without copping a line from either) to the unexpected, abrupt, and perfect left turns in “Ize of the World” and “Red Light.” The Strokes have heretofore relied almost entirely on their strong sense of dynamics to balance the derivative nature of their music; the dynamics are still there, but there’s a lot more going on with FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH, collectively, than one would initially expect. And yeah. I think I love it.
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Joe Hartlaub is in private law practice, specializing in entertainment law. He is the music editor for SavvyInsider.com
For a complete bio, click here.
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