How quickly can a band run out of interesting ideas? For the Strokes, it would appear that the answer is very quickly. After their debut album, Is This It which was almost derivative to the point of innovation, it was clear that the Strokes, if nothing else, had found a very nice little niche to occupy. And occupy they did, as Room on Fire was little more that a retread through the same ground. Which isn't to say it was bad, in fact, both albums succeeded for a few reasons. There was some sort of ingrained pursuit of cool, or something to that effect, that drove the music, but, with the absence of any virtuoso member of the band, there was no room for any one member to completely eclipse the others. Plus, the answering machine vocals gave every song the feel of the world's most urgent yawn, in a good way.
And then came First Impressions of the Earth. Where, something, be it complacency, egotism, or sheer stupidity overrode every other creative influence, and apparently possessed the Strokes to design an album that lived up to every criticism leveled at the band since they debuted. And in one fell swoop, the Strokes destroyed their niche, and the band was cast off into some sort of limbo, releasing various solo projects in the hopes of finding some successful enterprise. And, after that failed, they regrouped (relatively, singer Julian Casablancas thought their creativity would be best served if he never recorded with the others, sending tracks by email), returned to the studio, and recorded Angles.
The good news is that, unlike First Impressions, Angles avoids revisiting the same ground as their previous albums. Which isn't to say it discovers any new ground, since that's not really what the Strokes do. But, at least they're exploring different ground, even if it's already been there for decades. It's clear that Angles is a portrait of a band in flux. Having destroyed their comfort zone with First Impressions, the Strokes are grasping out for something to grab onto, and in that sense, Angles is by far the most experimental Strokes album to date.
Now as to whether all that experimentation works, well, kinda. It's also by far their least consistent album to date, there's so many different things being tried, and for every success, there's something that doesn't really get off the ground. The most notable difference on the album (apart from how scattershot it feels, relative to their previous efforts) is the improved musicianship. If nothing else, there is evidence that after 10 years, the band has made progress on that front. The addition of keyboards to their songs is probably going to serve them in the future, provided they can decide what they want to do by then.
And it really would be nice if they could figure that out sooner rather than later. If they just pick a couple of the stylistic successes off this album, they could easily manufacture a blueprint for future works (suggestion: merge the 80s synth pop of "Two Kinds of Happiness" with the classic rock feel of "Gratisfaction", stir thoroughly, hope for the best). But they have to pick something, because cluttered and unfocused isn't a niche, it's a criticism, and as the Strokes themselves have proven, nothing good comes from living up to your critics.
