TRACK REVIEW: The Strokes - Bad Decisions

TRACK REVIEW:

The Strokes

Bad Decisions

9.2/10

The track, Bad Decisions, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbZTnZDvPA

GENRE:

Indie Rock

ORIGIN:

New York, U.S.A.

RELEASE DATE:

18th February, 2020

The album, The New Abnormal, is available from 10th April, 2020. Pre-order here: https://smarturl.it/TheNewAbnormal?iq

__________

THIS is the first time I have…

assessed The Strokes, but now feels like a perfect time to focus on the New York band. At the moment, The Strokes are preparing for a gig in Belfast on Monday, and they then head back to North America. Looking at their tour schedule, and it seems like the guys could slot in a performance at Glastonbury. The line-up is yet to come, but one wouldn’t bet against The Strokes being added! It seems strange to think that their debut album, Is This It, is almost twenty – it turns twenty in July next year. Right now, it is still a cool-if-unruly teen, and I will focus on that in a minute. I want, first, to discuss The Strokes as a live band, as they have just played London. I do not usually go to live gigs, but it seems like their performance at The Roundhouse was glorious. In terms of cool bands who can thrill the crowds and produce these epic sets, there are few who move like The Strokes! Granted, the band have been performing together for years, and they have more than enough hits under their belt to give the fans what they want. Bands who have been gigging for so many years could get complacent and phone in their set; they could just do a pared-down set and leave things at that. As it is, The Strokes give value for money and deliver something sensational. I want to concentrate on a couple of different subjects – one that I have featured a few times -, but here are a couple of reviews from their Roundhouse gig. This is what The Guardian had to say:

“After a terrific run through You Only Live Once, a song plucked from the place where classic rock bumped up against new wave, Julian Casablancas starts singing something unrecognisable. Albert Hammond Jr joins in on guitar, and gradually the other three try to work out something to do. It doesn’t seem to be a song from the forthcoming new album, The New Abnormal, given that three of the band are barely playing it, but in an example of work-to-rule that would have impressed a 1970s trade unionist, the band count it as one of their 15 songs for the evening, leave the stage one song before the end of the written setlist, and drop The Modern Age from the encore.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Strokes live at The Roundhouse, London on 18th February, 2020/PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five/NME

The two actual new songs played, though, are glorious. The Adults Are Talking begins, like some relic of an early 80s John Peel show, with skeletal drum machine and guitars so spindly that they seem barely able to support themselves, then builds until the guitars interlock like electrical currents tickling each other into life. Bad Decision is gloriously and expansively melancholy, camped halfway between Blondie’s Union City Blue and Generation X’s Dancing With Myself (Billy Idol and Tony James have been given a songwriting credit).

Inevitably, though, it’s the four songs from Is This It that set the crowd alight, even if the dancefloor is too packed for much in the way of movement. And you realise just how odd a proposition they really were: guitars so trebly they could pierce ice, Casablancas’s voice a dishevelled slur. There’s been greatness since, too. It hasn’t all been a 15-year decline”.

NME were in attendance to see Th Strokes kill The Roundhouse, and they took some cool snaps whilst there – The Strokes’ social media pages are not stuffed with great photos by and large. Here are a few snippets from the review:

“Good old London town,” smiles a typically laissez faire Julian Casablancas in full lounge lizard mode, before recalling to the sold-out Roundhouse crowd how the capital first took The Strokes to their bosom when they led the indie revolution at the turn of this century. “America had no love for us back then,” he purrs. “Only the sharp minds of the British could understand the nuances of our music.”

This last-minute show to celebrate the announcement of their long-awaited new album ‘The New Abnormal‘ does feel like something of a homecoming. It’s the party they deserve but weren’t fully allowed when they were last in town at All Points East, where they were dogged by sound issues (but still played an absolute blinder). But in high spirits and striking a fine balance between leaning on their legacy and showcasing promising new cuts with fire and compulsion, this is the most fun and vital that The Strokes have felt in 15 years. The chemistry is back, and we are here for it.

IN THIS PHOTO: Albert Hammond Jr./PHOTO CREDIT: Justyna Hammond Jr.

Let’s take a minute to talk about how good the new stuff sounded. ‘The Adults Are Talking’ has the free and easy spirit of anything from ‘Room On Fire’ but a little wiser, ‘Bad Decisions’ landed like an instant classic, and they also aired an unknown jazzy little number that suggests ‘The New Abnormal’ could take us down some very strange lanes…”.

It is remarkable that the band are still touring and giving us these fantastic performances. I am not sure whether The Strokes are coming back to London or the U.K. later in the year, but it would be nice if they appeared on a few festival line-ups. Bands like The Strokes are uniting generations. People like me (in their thirties) remember their debut album coming along and feeling this very raw and cool thing – I keep using the ‘cool’ word, but it is applicable in every case! There are older fans – the middle-aged – and very young fans who have either bonded with The Strokes recently or have been there since the start. Live performances can bond people in a way social media and the Internet cannot. Now that music is less about physical sharing and that social connection, I think there is something quite cold and distant about music-sharing; we do not chat about songs and artists the way we used to. I think gigs are one of the few remaining elements of the past that has remained pure. Sure, a lot of people are filming gigs on their phones, but there is that joy and magic of being in the same space as people, having this shared experience. I know bands like The Strokes realise how important live performance is, and how it touches people. A subject I have mentioned a few times in various reviews is the state of Rock. One cannot class The Strokes as purely ‘Rock’ – they fit into other genres -, but there was great excitement when they unveiled Is This It in 2001.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Strokes in 2001/PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Knott

In 2002, The Libertines released their debut, Up the Bracket, and were often compared to The Strokes. It was a rich time for Rock where young bands were mixing in the Punk sound of the 1970s but taking from the here and now and mixing this potent brew. Like The Libertines, The Strokes put out a debut that was fresh and basic, yet there was familiarity – some elements of bands like The Stooges and The Velvet Underground. The Strokes did not wear their influences too heavily; instead, they recorded an album that seemed to capture a spirit and desire in the air. There were other great Rock bands around in 2001 – The White Stripes (a duo) were at their peak -, so I don’t think it was wholly down to The Strokes to ‘save Rock’. There is this ongoing debate as to whether Rock is dead and who can save it. The Strokes arrived at a time when their U.S. contemporaries like The White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age were ruling. Here, we had Muse and Radiohead showing that Rock was not only alive, but able to bring in other genres in a way a lot of the 1990s’ Rock did not. I do feel The Strokes are unfairly burdened with the responsibility of saving Rock; I don’t think they truly believed they were the only decent Rock band and they were saviours. I do think people unfairly criticise The Strokes for declining since their debut and not leading Rock to giddy heights for years. I will argue against the assumption The Strokes’ music was only relevant in 2001 but, before then, it is clear that the band helped ignite a new wave of Rock artists in the U.K. In fact, as this article shows, The Strokes caused a sensation and inspired musicians, fans, and label managers alike:

“Kelly Kiley (manager of Rough Trade Records): “I’ve never known a band to get security so quickly.”

Laura Young (blogger): “The first time I ever saw the Strokes, in the middle of the show, Julian started staring off into the distance. Then you just see him jump into the crowd, and there was a kerfuffle. He was getting into a fight. Very quickly, one of the bouncers came in and broke it up, but I was like: ‘Oh my God, this is so awesome.’ They had this reputation in the press of being bad boys. Drinking a lot, getting into trouble. That was their whole persona, cool New York, don’t-give-a-fuck type of dudes.”

PHOTO CREDIT: NME

Carl Barât (frontman, the Libertines): “They were on Rough Trade in England and that was a big thing. And we had been to see a gig in Liverpool. We jumped the train. Their EP had just come out and we stole it from the shop in the station and we were looking at the lyrics on the way up. We were like: ‘These motherfuckers from America – we wear those clothes! We do this!’”

Mark Ronson: “I remember asking someone what the Libertines were and they said that they were like the British version of the Strokes, and I remember being like: ‘Well, I have the Strokes, I don’t really need the British version.’ I know English kids who are seven years younger, who that band was so seminal for that they’d cry if Can’t Stand Me Now comes on at a certain point in the evening. It didn’t grab me, and like I said, if this is the British Strokes, well, we have the Strokes. I wasn’t super interested in it.”

Conor Oberst (frontman, Bright Eyes): “That summer, the summer of 2001, was really the summer of the Strokes over there. We were touring England and that’s where I first saw someone walking around with that original T-shirt. I thought: ‘The Strokes. Do they mean, like, have a stroke? Or a pool stroke?’ It kind of looked like the Storks if you looked at it wrong. The record wasn’t out in America yet but in every club we were playing, they’d be playing it as we walked in the door”.

A lot of people felt Rock sort of ended when the 1990s did, but the first couple of years of the new millennium were full of life and excitement. It was great being around, and I feel The Strokes are responsibility for so much of the great music around then – whether it was their own or another band’s. Listen to their latest track, Bad Decisions, and it is clear The Strokes are still hugely relevant and contributing something terrific to the scene. Maybe Rock has declined since the start of the 2000s – it definitely has – and there are far fewer great bands standing in the mind. Today, there are a lot of groups splicing genres and there are some promising newcomers, but the mainstream is not as alive with Rock giants like it used to be. That said, I am listening to so many bands today that owe a debt to The Strokes and one can hear their D.N.A. in so many newcomers. I am excited to see where The Strokes head next and what we can expect from their forthcoming album, The New Abnormal.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Strokes in New York City in 2001/PHOTO CREDIT: @CodeSmyth

Too many people seem to be of the opinion that The Strokes were all about the 2000s (the first decade of the twenty-first century) and that is it. Albums like Room on Fire (2003) and First Impressions of Earth (2006) have some great numbers on them, but there was so much pressure on the band’s shoulders after their debut – so many people wanting a repeat of Is This It. There was a lot of love for The Strokes when they broke through, but there was snobbishness from various corners of the press; the feeling that the band were all about style and attitude and had no substance. This is what NME wrote in 2011:

“Of course history is littered with brilliant albums made by rich people but I can guarantee you that none of them are the work of the indolently navel gazing, clothes horse, fuck puppet sons of the already famous who wouldn’t know what the word ‘struggle’ meant unless their amanuensis looked it up for them in a fucking gold-plated dictionary.

The malign influence of this album was twofold. Firstly, in real terms, it opened up the floodgates for dead-eyed, style over substance, stadium indie groups, who leaned heavily on classic music from the canon but with all rough edges smoothed off to make it more palatable for mass consumption. (Hello The Killers, Kings Of Leon, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club etc.)

Secondly, in aesthetic terms, their legacy bequeathed to the UK indie scene over the following decade cannot be underestimated either. They set a blueprint for lager-sodden underachievement, unthinking narcosis and the actual music being relegated to tertiary importance behind identikit thrift store clothing and studied urban ennui with a side helping of downward mobility.

Regardless of what they sound like, we can thank The Strokes for the ‘will this do’ imbecility of Razorlight, The Others, Dirty Pretty Things and many more to boot. There were loads of great NYC bands we could have clasped to our collective bosom a decade ago including Liars, Les Savy Fav, Oneida or Black Dice instead of Little Lord Fauntleroy And The Overdrafts (just as there were loads of better albums in 2001 by the likes of The White Stripes, Jay-Z, Prefuse 73, Lightning Bolt, Missy Elliott, Fantomas and Roots Manuva)”.

All brilliant bands evolve, and The Strokes churning out various approximations of their debut would have been met with criticisms and boredom. What they did was to move their sound forward and not replicate what came before. Maybe that is why The Strokes got so much unfair criticism:

“When a band represents a certain thing at a certain moment in time, our expectations of how they should sound and what they should do are crystallized. The Strokes were supposed to be scrappy New York dudes playing throwback, Velvet Underground-inspired garage rock; is it unreasonable for us to expect that they’d do that forever?

The thing that tanked the Strokes’ mainstream success is that they stopped wanting to make straightforward rock records. And could you blame them? They learned to play their instruments and began expanding their palette of influences. In a sense, the Strokes stopped pretending to be musicians.

Casablancas has historically been a brilliant songwriter, but his virtuosic tendencies pushed him to make music that was more complicated than it was listenable. His first solo album, Phrazes for the Young, has a few bangers on it (see "11th Dimension", which sounds like David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” tripping on synths). The follow up, Tyranny, is a dissonant hour of muddy guitars and drum machines. Releasing the ten-minute-long “Human Sadness” as the album’s first single feels a little bit like Casablancas giving the middle finger to anyone who yearns for the early days of the Strokes”.

Everyone is entitled to their onions, but I think The Strokes have released several brilliant albums, and their legacy and importance extends far and wide. The sort of urgency that we have in Grime and Hip-Hop used to belong to Rock. Now, Rock is either watered-down or sanitised. It has become less risky and, when you look at the bands out there, how many of them are as thrilling and cool as The Strokes?! How many bands today are singing about boozing, living whilst you’re young and the thrill of unexpected?

IN THIS PHOTO: Julian Casablancas/PHOTO CREDIT: Brett Rubin

The Strokes’ influence extended beyond their music. They were a band that the world needed in 2001; a return to the classic days of Rock and Punk where you could get these hot bands that could write tunes that were indelible. NME explain more in a 2009 article:

“Given that they also provided the noughties with one of its finest albums, to say The Strokes’ lasting legacy is that they gave indie a nice makeover might seem harsh. But it was WAY more important than that. Mirroring the mid-’70s, rock’n’roll post-‘Kid A’ had become awash with seriousness and everyone believing that the future, post-Britpop, was anti-image, anti-nostalgia.

But what they encapsulated and gave back to us for that first amazing couple of years was that sense of rock’n’roll being a 24-7, living-for-the-moment lifestyle choice comprised of clothes, fucking, snorting, drinking, dancing and great records in equal measure. To stand in an indie disco around that time, surrounded by folk who all looked as fabulous as you did, all singing the “Alone we stand/Together we fall apart” line from ‘Someday’ was truly joyous.

It meant something, and something that was to loom large over the whole decade. That so many of these people went on to form bands – Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines to name but two – is proof positive that it wasn’t all about the cut of the cloth. The Strokes’ gift to the world was to make it fall in love with rock’n’roll once again, in all its ridiculous glory”.

Before I get to reviewing The Strokes’ new single, Bad Decisions, I have not name-checked their lead, Julian Casablancas. He can be a divisive figure, but I think he is a really interesting person who has a lot to say. I think a lot of the flack that came the way of The Strokes resulted from this impression that the band were a bit empty and shallow; maybe they were just preening and did not have the wit and intellect of some of their heroes. I just quickly want to source from an interview Casablancas gave to Vulture back in 2018. He talked about the state of modern Pop music, and the role of the Internet today – and he hinted at the future of The Strokes:

“Why are you disappointed in the internet?

I really believed that the internet’s capacity to let people access the best of the best of music — from underground stuff to music from all over the world — would’ve been a positive influence, that music would’ve evolved like never before. Instead music has been co-opted by some kind of capitalist profit game. I thought the internet would help balance the relationship between quality and the mainstream, but it’s gone the opposite way. Quality is being sucked out of music. One Direction will have 4 billion views and the best artists of today will only see a fraction of that attention. I’ve talked about this before, but there’s an exact parallel between music and politics.

Why?

Because if you grew up in a world where Ariel Pink was popular then you would say “I don’t see how Ed Sheeran can be popular.” People grow up with norms knocked into their heads. And I’m not trying to diss Ed Sheeran or any pop star. Ed Sheeran seems like a nice, cool guy and I have nothing against his music. Let him sell a billion records. I’m just saying I don’t understand why there can’t be a world where Ed Sheeran gets 60 percent of the attention and Ariel Pink gets 40 percent. Now it’s almost like Ed Sheeran gets 99.5 percent of it. The creative bands have been pushed so far into the margins. But my bigger point is that whether it’s music or politics, right now we’re mired in whoever’s propaganda is loudest. I’m sorry — I’m not good at explaining things.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nigel Parry for Vulture

No, I understand you. Is the imbalance you just described discouraging? Or does it make you want to try harder to break through?

Well, here I am. I’m trying to convince someone who I think is smart that technology and algorithms don’t have to erase truth and quality. That’s all I’m saying to you. Because if you don’t think that’s what’s happening, you’re not seeing what’s going on. If you’re asking what’s personally interesting to me, this is it. I’m happy to talk music more if that’s what you want.

Given where your interests lie, is being in the Strokes at all inspiring?

That’s not where my focus is. To me, the Strokes — I was thinking about it earlier today. I may have been fooling myself but back in the beginning it was good and I was loving what we were doing. I just wanted to musically progress in certain ways. You have to be super hard with yourself. We would do demos and people would want to put them out and I’d be like, “This is not good. Let’s move on.” I did the same thing with the Strokes. I was like, “This is fine but I want to move forward.” I want to evolve and do something even more challenging: Black Sabbath, Nirvana, some Doors stuff — music that’s not mainstream but breaks into the mainstream”.

I have a lot of respect for The Strokes and Casablancas. I think, at a time when there are a lot of important artists speaking up and out, Rock is a little quiet on that front. I have not quite had the same thrill I experienced when the likes of The Strokes and The White Stripes came along. Maybe it was a result of the energy and influence of the 1990s, but there is a great opportunity to revive the sort of brilliance The Strokes gave to the world – and continue to do to this day.

Bad Decisions is The Strokes’ new track, and there is something reliably familiar about the track. It has a feel of their earlier work, and I love the video for the song – the band are projected from a T.V. and advertised as clones; the aesthetic mixes the present with the décor of the 1950s or 1960s. I am not sure how much the band have revealed about Bad Decisions’ origins and what motivated its creation. “Dropped down the lights/I’m sitting with you/Moscow 1972” is the opening statement and, instantly, one wonders what that refers to. Certainty, the video does not give too many clues. In terms of compositions, it springs along nicely and, again, is fairly familiar to some of their previous work. Maybe fans might have been expecting something a bit more cutting or different, but I think the composition works just fine. Casablancas is his reliably cool-yet-drawling self. The reason I have mentioned The Strokes’ debut album and their impact is that, here, they sort of combine elements of Is This It with something more modern. “Always singing in my sleep/I will leave it in my dreams/Oh, making bad decisions” sort of adds to an air of mystery, and I was wondering whether Bad Decisions in any way related to a relationship that was going through struggles or the hero was rueing a lack of ambition or bravery. The more you listen to the song, the more you appreciate the band’s performance and the lead vocal. The composition sparks and jumps. It is never too intense and, whilst Bad Decisions does not have a huge chorus, you are invested because of its coolness and intrigue. Casablanca broods and emotes; he seems detached at first, but it is clear he is wrestling with something. It is easy to get distracted by the video, but I think it adds something to the song. It is funny, but you think about replica bands and commercialism; one wonders what message the video is sending and, when paired with the song, maybe it takes your mind in different directions.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Strokes in 2006

I have heard the song a few times, and I keep re-evaluating my thoughts and impressions. It appears the hero is making bad decisions for someone – possibly his lover -, and, when lyrics like “I hang on everything you say/I wanna write down every word” are delivered, I wonder whether that is to do with adoration, or the hero is conscious of the mistakes and downsides. One is hooked by Casablancas’ vocal and the various different feelings one picks up on. I started thinking about a relationship where the two are in different places – “Never listenin’ to you” -, and it seems a breakdown in communication and ignorance is raising its head. I am not sure whether things are as simple as that. The video’s images of the band being cloned and there being this slightly eerier element makes me wonder whether global politics and the U.S. government are under the microscope – in the sense that there are different expectations and two different sets of morals. I would advise people to take a few listens to Bad Decisions, as it is one of those tracks that grows. It is not up there with the classic Strokes songs, but it does have plenty to recommend. As the band have an album coming up, many will ask whether the rest of the material has the same feel and flavour as Bad Decisions. I think The Strokes are producing, at the moment, some of their best material in a long time. I have been a fan of the band since the start and, whilst I have dropped out a bit here and there, it is great to have them back and producing great material.

The Strokes are touring this year, and the highly-anticipated The New Abnormal album arrives on 10th April. Comedown Machine gained some praise, but I think the two singles we have heard from their upcoming album – At the Door is the other – show the band are hitting their stride again. The Strokes will never return to there Is This It debut because that album was a particular moment in time. I think The Strokes are far stronger than their debut, and they are still extremely important and relevant. Anyone who attended their gig at The Roundhouse a few days back knows the band are still phenomenal and join people together. They were leaders of a wave of brilliant Rock that emerged at the start of this century. Maybe they have had a few weak moments through the years, but the fact they are still together and releasing fantastic music is because they need to be heard and are important to so many people. If they had copied Is This It in order to gain commercial acclaim, I don’t think the band would be together today. I shall leave things here, but it is great to see The Strokes moving forward and looking into the future. As I said near the start, it is odd to look back at Is This It and realise it is almost twenty years since it came out. Whilst many of The Strokes’ contemporaries have faded away or do not have the same punch they used to, the New York band still burn bright (The Libertines, I understand, are planning a new album this year). Say what you want about the Julian Casablancas-led band but, over eighteen years after their debut album came into the world, the boys...