Strokes comeback album hits all the right angles

Sabrina Barekzai

Contributing Writer

“Everybody’s been singing the same song for 10 years,” sings Julian Casablancas on “Under Cover of Darkness,” the first single from “Angles,” which is the fourth studio album from The Strokes. Perhaps a reference to their generation-defining 2001 debut “Is This It,” or to their nearly five-year hiatus as a band, Casablancas has remained mum on the line in recent interviews.

After banging out a slew of festival dates in 2010, The Strokes raised the anticipation for the March 22 release of “Angles.” Certainly a return to form, though spiced with elements of experimentation, “Angles” embodies not a band trying to relive its heyday, but a band that’s self-aware. This is The Strokes in 2011, they’re grown men; Casablancas is a sober, doting dad and guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. went to rehab to get clean before the recording for “Angles” began.

Post-“First Impressions of Earth,” which dropped in 2006, The Strokes left town. They went away to their parents’ house for a while, so to speak, and came back on their feet, back in the Lower East Side, strolling Ludlow Street in Levi’s and Converse sneakers (let’s pretend the Lower East Side is still cool).

The Strokes are credited with the garage-rock revival of the early 2000s, and on “Angles” they have not strayed far from their roots. Casablancas’s endearingly lazy vocals are echo-y and futuristic on “You’re So Right,” but honest on “Call Me Back.”

“Taken For a Fool,” written by guitarist Nick Valensi is a stand-out track that is likely to turn into the sing-along tune when the band hits the road this summer and beyond. Delving deeper is “Games,” where Casablancas’ discontent can be heard loud and clear as he sings of “living in an empty world.”

At times “Angles” is guilty of sounding like mash of B-sides that were quickly produced. The consistency is sometimes hard to pinpoint, though most tracks seem to stand up fine on their own.

The recording of “Angles” was marked by the absence of Casablancas in the studio. Instead the 32-year-old singer laid his vocals in a separate studio from Hammond, bassist Nikolai Fraiture, drummer Fabrizio Moretti and Valensi. That’s what has always been a little disheartening about The Strokes—they don’t seem to like each other much.

Band politics aside, “Angles” is the most group effort that The Strokes has ever put out. Casablancas usually sits as the chief songwriter, but lyric-duty was divvied up among the five band mates for this album.

This may not be the pristine, superb comeback album that superfans would have liked, but it’s pretty damn good. Catchy and relevant, “Angles” does the deed of telling the world that New York City’s coolest band is back.

Grade: B