The Strokes (2025)

One Liner: Always better than I remember rock and roll
Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, garage rock revival, post-punk revival, new wave
Home: NYC

Poster Position: Headliner
Day: Saturday
Both Weekends.

T-Mobile Stage at 8:15 (another less-than-two-hour headliner is bunk)

Thoughts: Finally.  All these years of using "Strokes-ian" as a descriptor for many of the young new rock bands, I finally get another crack at the originals again.  They were last here in 2015, so it has actually been a legitimately long time for them, even though it doesn't feel that way in my brain.

Before I get to the review, I have to tell the story of the last time these dudes were in town for the Fest.  A co-worker from Houston pinged all of the Austin office, asking if someone was planning to be at ACL.  I responded, and he asked if I would mind just being the emergency contact-type guy for his son who was going to the park alone.  "Sure, no problem.  Give him my cell."  Well, the only band he really cared about was the Strokes, and we ended up watching the show together in the crowd, and then he bummed a ride off of me.  Which meant that we spent like 2 hours together, to get out of the park, schlep up to my mom's house, and then drive through mega-traffic to get him back to his dorm room.  Because he was IN COLLEGE!  When I agreed to help out, I had figured this was a 14 year old or something, but no, this was an adult male who dug the Strokes and sponged off of me to waste a chunk of my life.  I hope he's found friends and told his dad to relax.

The Garage Rock Revival.  In the early oughts, these guys were the face of the new garage rock revival movement, with raw, edgy rock bordering on punk, on 2001's Is This It.  I feel like everyone in 2001 owned that CD.  That yellow and aqua cover art is singed into my brain.  The big hit off of that album was "Last Nite."  732.2 million streams by now.

Nothing frilly.  Just straight bass, guitar, drums, and growling, distorted vocals.  And yet this stuff shot straight up the charts and became lauded by critics.  Rolling Stone named the album number 2 in its list of top albums of the 2000's.  NME literally named it the top four album of ALL TIME.  So, some people get hysterical about their music.  I thought that album was good, but seriously, top four of all time? Come on.  But lots of really good tunes on there - "Someday" is another standout.

I never dug into their background in 2015.  I guess I kept things simpler back then.  Singer/songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti (those are freaking great names for Soprano's side characters) started playing together when they were teenagers in Manhattan.  By 1997, they had an informal band and had added Nikolai Fraiture to play the bass.  In 1998, they invited guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. to join, and they were all set.  Of note, at least to me, is that Casablancas and Hammond had attended a boarding school in Switzerland together.  Ooo lala!  They hustled and practiced their asses off, playing their first show as the Strokes in Manhattan in 1999.  Wikipedia says that the eventual bidding war for their label was the largest for a rock band in years.  Love it!  When they released that first disc, they had been scheduled to play a tented stage at the Reading and Leeds Festival, but after the disc blew up, they got moved up the billing twice until they snagged a spot on the main stage.

I honestly had not paid attention to the Strokes since that initial album, so in 2015, I had no idea that they had continued to churn out more discs.  Also of note, and maybe only to me, their top three most popular songs on Spotify right now are not from that first disc.  I would have wagered that the debut album would have maintained its hold on their top stuff.

2003's Room on Fire pretty well kept to the same vibe.  Jagged guitar rock with Casablancas plaintively hollering ragged lines over the top.  The album was critically praised but din't sell as well. The big hit from that disc was "Reptila" with 658.7 million streams (only one other track breaks 100 million.).

See what I mean?  Could have been on the first album.  But also, a very enjoyable track.  The next disc is 2006's First Impressions of Earth, which has even less streams than that last one.  Only one song cracks 100 million streams, the album opener "You Only Live Once."  370.8 million.  And when I saw the title, I took a moment to try to remember if they had done a Bond theme song.

Still on the same track.  I guess the popularity waned some when it was not new and exciting to play rock and roll?  This disc received mixed reviews, and afterwards the band took a haitus.

Their new sound definitely took some swerves.  Casablancas said the next album sounded like a mixture of 1970's rock and "music from the future."  They went through some different producers before finally releasing 2011's Angles.  The top track is "Under Cover of Darkness" with 231.3 million streams.

I dig that tune.  And it definitely sounds like the Strokes of old (which I guess people like to hear!), but if you listen to the whole album, it has some poppier bits and field trips.  The next disc, 2013's Comedown Machine, apparently was mostly made up of songs from the Angles sessions.  Definitely poppy, disco-tinged rock with some flourishes that sound like the Strokes of old, but also get pretty far afield.  Here is "Call It Fate, Call it Karma," the most popular tune from Comedown Machine 215.1 million spins on Spotify

It comes on like some sort of Radiohead fever dream or something.  You can barely comprehend what they are singing about, like he was in the stairway outside of the studio for this take.  I am confused as to why this has become the big track off of this album.  "One Way Trigger" had been a big hit at the time of release, which is, uh, just not quite the same as the old stuff.  Feels like a Japanese cover band of Vampire Weekend tried to write an original Strokes tune.  Kind of whack.

They took another big break here, at least from studio recording, as they played ACL and every other festival on the planet.  They claimed to be working with Rick Rubin in 2016, but then they backtracked on that.  And then, when they were ready to release the new disc, COVID-19 smacked them in their face.  So, 2020's The New Abnormal was released on April 10, right as everything stopped.  Here was my review at the time:

"The Strokes - The New Abnormal.  Wait, do I like a Strokes album?  Coronavirus has changed me!  This album is exceedingly heavy on the 80's synth action, and therefore leaves behind some of the classic garage chug that Is This It? enjoyed, but I keep finding that I actually kind of like it when the album comes on.  If you have followed me before, then you know I have been relatively unimpressed by the Strokes since that debut album, and that I really didn't enjoy their show at ACL a few years ago.  Like, "Bad Decisions" couldn't sound more like an 80's new wave rock song.  It seriously could be on the Breakfast Club soundtrack and I wouldn't be shocked.  I can't decide if that riff is more Psychedelic Furs or The Cure.  It's definitely one of them.  Anyway, these tracks all have a good sense of groove, which is one of the things that appeals most to me about good rock, and therefore, I'm bumping these things.  At first, I was unsure about "At The Door," the first single, but now I find myself singing along to it and kinda grooving the depressed synths at the start.  Funny thing is, I figured that would be the most popular track, but 7 tracks from this album are trending higher on Spotify (yes, I am now able to see playcounts and popularity again) and one has more streams.  And guess which one?  The 80's new wave song wins!  "Bad Decisions" with 11.7 million streams. (this is untrue as of 2025, but hold on to that thought.  Bad Decisions now has 97 million streams, FYI)

Disturbing ass video.  Like, literally, that initial guitar riff is something from the 80's.  It is straight up stolen, right?  It was killing me, so I googled it, and Brooklyn Vegan says "kinda sounds like the middle ground between “I Melt With You,” “Dancing With Myself,” and Is This It-era Strokes."  Which is right on.  I don't know, man, I like this album.  Not sure if I'll ever subject myself to another live show with them, but this is alrighty."

Now, the opening track, called "The Adults Are Talking" is the big track on this album, with a whopping 630.9 million streams.

Postal Service-ass beat starting that track off.  I like the uniforms reminding me of the Astros poop rainbow era.  Super catchy song, just propulsive and fun.  No way I would have cared for it as their initial single from 2001, but that has be bopping right now.

Aaaaaaand, no new music since then.  Which makes it super weird for them to headline the Fest this year, but who knows how any of this works anymore.  Wikipedia says this about the new music: "In October 2022, [Rick] Rubin revealed he'd been recording a new album with The Strokes in Costa Rica. As of January 2025, there has been no update on that album, with Casablancas in particular focusing more on his experimental music with The Voidz, remarking that with the Strokes "Some of my dreams were kind of shattered a little bit along the way within that."  Huh.  That sounds, like, really bad?  Like, are they going to fight each other on stage?

Whatever.  I'm in to have my heart broken again.  I mean, not like I'm going to go watch Sabrina freaking Carpenter.  Let's do it.