Comedown Machine

So The Strokes are back, their new album 'Comedown Machine' was due to be released 26th March and tonight two of the tracks 'tap out' and '80's Comedown Machine' were going to be released for the first time on Radio 1 by Zane Lowe. Instead the whole album has been leaked online so of course I listened! Come on! It's The Strokes. I did want to wait to own the actual CD to lie in bed and listen to the whole thing back to front but so many people on twitter and tumblr were going crazy for it there was no way I was waiting that long. So here we are, my friend Josie and I were talking about the album and she said 'we would write the best review' which obviously is why I am writing this for you now. I just had an urge to put my Strokes based ramblings into writing. It would also be quite nice in years to come when i'm like 'oh I wonder exactly how I felt when comedown machine came out, if only I had blogged about it or something!' and I shall reply to my older self who apparently now talked to herself with 'aha! I believe I did'.
Obviously many people are sharing opinions on twitter as that's what people do and some include

'Thats #ComedownMachine done! Atm it just sounds like a collection of songs rather than an album, but theres some cool stuff on it'
'AMAZING. #ComedownMachine'
'Strokes Strokes Strokes Strokes all the time i need to listen to your music is never quite enough #TheStrokes #ComedownMachine'

Yeah so people seem pretty happy. As an obvious Strokes fan i'm happy people are enjoying it but (now is time for my rant) some people just don't seem to appreciate them for their music. I feel like The Strokes are one of those bands which just are so talented but in such an unconventional way, they do not conform to usual commercial expectations, they don't interview much, plaster their merch everywhere etc. But people whose tweets include 'im having a stroke hahah hhh' seem to be missing the point. They're not talking about anything to do with the music and more seem to like The Strokes for various other reasons which completely ignores the sheer talent they possess.
So anyway, rant over now as I've been a little hypocritical so far, I'll start to talk about the music.

I've always loved Phrazes for the Young (Julian Casablancas- lead singer's solo album) and Is This It (debut) is obviously fantastic as everyone is aware but this album manages to create 11 incredible songs but all in their own right. Is this it and Phrazes were great but each song was slightly similar to the next. In Comedown Machine you can hear so many little differences between each song and yet none feel out of place. As Josie said 'it's like some kind of magic that makes you feel completely different'. Each song has it's own feel and story that manages to take you to some other place. When you're listening to it, it doesn't feel like 2013 or England or anywhere, it's like a musical out of body experience where each song takes you somewhere different. All the Time takes you back to Is This It and the skinny jeans lazy music feel, but then Call it Fate, Call it Karma is like you're being sung to as you try to fall asleep.
It is truly impeccable.

I find this with The Beatles as well where if you listen to their early stuff and then listen to newer songs you can hear so clearly how much more intelligent they have become, the intricacies in the music is far more obvious and yet when you're listening to the songs you don't even focus on any of the instruments they just blend together really well to just create one solid song. That's another good thing about The Strokes they are never arrogant with their instruments, no one is overpowering anyone else. Albert and Nick don't constantly break into guitar solo just to prove that they can do it, because that's not what they have to do, they know they're good, we know they're good and so they don't need to prove it.

So I'm going to try and wrap things up before I ramble on for years, basically what i'm saying is 5/5 go buy it, appreciate the music.

Em
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