Third Strokes album falls short

With all that has been said and written about The Strokes, it's hard to blame them for becoming the most self-conscious band in rock. The crush of expectations, hype and backlash surely has to weigh on their minds, and being branded the "saviors of rock" has always been an impossible label to live up to. Up to this point, none of that talk has really mattered though. \nThe only thing that did matter was that The Strokes were a fresh and exciting young band that put out two great records. With their third album, First Impressions of Earth, The Strokes sadly seem more focused on answering their critics than creating inspired songs. In trying to deliver something new and different, The Strokes have forgotten the hooks and arrangements that made them so good in the first place. \n For First Impressions of Earth, The Strokes have parted with Gordon Raphael, the producer of their first two albums, and brought in veteran producer David Kahne, who has worked with the likes of Sublime, Sugar Ray and Paul McCartney. This move was seemingly done to give The Strokes a new angle on their sound, but the only real difference between First Impressions and the two prior Strokes albums is that the songs on First Impressions aren't nearly as good. This album is no leap forward. \nFirst Impressions tries to simultaneously maintain The Strokes' sound, while adding it to different arrangements and styles, and does neither very convincingly. There are tribal drums on "Killing Lies," middle-eastern sounding guitars on "Vision of Division," and even a tribute to Shane MacGowan and The Pogues in "15 Minutes," but these new ideas seem out of place and never really click. \nIn addition to the experimentation gone wrong, The Strokes have also forgotten how to edit themselves. Once the tightest of songwriters, Julian Casablancas has traded the concise for the bloated. At 14 songs and 52 minutes, this album has you reaching for the skip button way too often.\nTo be fair, there are some great moments on First Impressions. "You Only Live Once" and "Red Light" are both joyous bouncing tunes that beg to be played over and over. The mellotron-laden "Ask Me Anything" is a cool aside, venturing from their usual two-guitar hum, and the first single "Juicebox," shows what might have been had The Strokes realized the new ideas they were reaching for. \nThe most disturbing thing about this uneven release is the general sense of indifference that accompanies it, especially the lyrical content. The Strokes were finally a great young band that we could grow up with, but where was once vitality has now been replaced by apathy. In "Ask Me Anything," Casablancas, all but three albums into his recording career, seems clearly burnt out. Here is a guy who has a platform to say and do pretty much whatever he wants, and all he can proclaim over and over again is "I've got nothing to say"