Comedown Machine
The RCA logo that dominates the album art of *Comedown Machine* sarcastically signifies The Strokes fulfilling their five-album contract obligation to the label. With similarly endearing cheekiness, the opening song is titled “Tap Out.” Inside jokes aside, *Comedown Machine* is a seriously approached indie-pop album that furthers the band’s hip cosmopolitan sound. “Tap Out” plays with striking similarities to Julian Casablancas’ solo album *Phrazes for the Young*, replete with falsetto vocals set to muted disco flourishes. But the following single “All The Time” properly sets the album’s tone with The Strokes\' familiar post-punk influences and driving guitar riffs chugging alongside Casablancas’ more recognizable tenor. It’s impossible not to recall A-ha’s 1985 synth-pop hit “Take On Me” when hearing the percolating keyboards in “One Way Trigger”—especially when Casablancas ramps up his glassy falsetto to Morten Harket’s range. But with help from producer Gus Oberg (who also mixed the band’s preceding album, *Angels*), The Strokes succeed at importing such \'80s influences without drowning in them.
The Strokes' fifth album is more immediately appealing than their last two records as they sound like they’re genuinely trying here, and having fun. At times it feels like a mixtape the Strokes made for themselves: 11 songs, 11 different genre experiments.
A cynical listener might accuse The Strokes of trying to replicate the formula that was so effective for 2011’s Angles, the album that reintroduced the New York band to the world after a five-year absence—an absence that sure seemed like the end. But fans ought to understand at this point—five albums and a dozen years…
The New York quintet settle for average with their fifth studio album.
A decade ago, in that vulnerable post-9/11 age filled skinny jeans and retro garage-rock, The Strokes were rock royalty.
Arriving a relatively quick two years after Angles, Comedown Machine reunites the Strokes with producer Gus Oberg, but the results sound a lot less slick and overwrought.
Fair or not, Is This It and Room on Fire, The Strokes' one-two punch from the first few years of the '00s, loom heavy over all of their subsequent releases.
ClashMusic: Read an album review of 'Comedown Machine' by New York band The Strokes (Julian Casablancas, Albert Hammond, Jr., Nikolai Fraiture, Fabrizio Moretti and Nick Valensi) featuring the single 'All The Time'.
The Strokes' fifth album will confuse long-time fans, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong>
This largely lethargic disjointed effort, with little sense of direction, suggests a band running low on motivation, writes <strong>Rebecca Nicholson</strong>