THE STROKES · Angels | CD

Jewelcase CD.

Background information about ''

Five years. That's how long the world waited for The Strokes to follow up First Impressions of Earth — and when Angles finally landed in 2011, it didn't just pick up where they left off. It detonated every expectation.

The New York quintet didn't reunite so much as reinvent. Where their earlier records crackled with that famously tight, interlocking garage-rock machinery, Angles opens the windows and lets the '80s breeze right in. Machu Picchu kicks things off with a loping reggae-tinged groove and Julian Casablancas crooning through what sounds like a busted transistor radio — and somehow, it's pure magic. Then Under Cover of Darkness swaggers in with those glorious dual-guitar lines from Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., a single that feels like meeting an old friend who's picked up some dazzling new dance moves. The band famously recorded these songs with minimal face-to-face contact, members emailing ideas from separate studios, and yet the result is their most kaleidoscopically cohesive work. Two Kinds of Happiness shimmers with new-wave sheen, while Taken for a Fool rides a nervous, jerky riff that proves they can still out-garage anyone when they feel like it. Games goes full synth-pop without a shred of irony, and Gratisfaction channels Thin Lizzy swagger into something utterly 21st-century. The rhythm section of Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti remains the secret weapon — listen to the taut, paranoid pulse of You're So Right and try not to get hypnotized. By the time Life Is Simple in the Moonlight closes the album on a note of melancholic grace, Casablancas murmuring over gently cascading guitars, you realize Angles isn't just a comeback — it's the sound of five distinct personalities learning to be a band again, and making their most adventurous record in the process.

For fans of:
Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, The Voidz, Franz Ferdinand, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Track listing

1. Machu Picchu
2. Under Cover Of Darkness
3. Two Kinds Of Happiness
4. You're So Right
5. Taken For A Fool
6. Games
7. Call Me Back
8. Gratisfaction
9. Metabolism
10. Life Is Simple In The Moonlight

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