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- Date Released: October 21, 2003
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Label: Rough Trade
Ever wanted to know what it feels like to have the world at your fingertips?
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We Say...
So what is that makes a band special? A dazzling debut and a jaw-dropping live show? Or the capacity to still create great music when you've got supermodels on speed dial, the label is screaming for 'product' and the press is hanging on your every word? For the Strokes in 2003, this was question hanging over them like the sword of Damocles. Having reinvented rock'n'roll for the new century with thirty-six minute exocet Is This It, Manhattan's most talked about quintet suddenly found themselves a victim of their own success. No longer could they get by on their ear for a tune and those so-vintage threads. After eighteen months of being fêted — by the NME at least — as the saviours of rock, the time had come to prove that they really were the natural heirs to a bloodline stretching back to Television.
No pressure, then. Yet four years on from its release, their achievement with Room On Fire becomes all the more remarkable. An irascible, hungover journey into the eye of pop stardom, the record drips with anger and frustration. Somewhere along the way their art had been compromised by both their own success and those blue chip good looks (pictures from the time see the band radiating a surliness not seen since the early Stones), and they were going to tell us about it.
Opener "What Ever Happened?" finds Julian Cassablancas grumbling "I wanna be forgotten/ And I don't wanna be reminded"; on "You Talk Way Too Much" he delivers the title with the froideur of a coked-up Jagger. When he sees off the wired reggae of "Automatic Stop" with the withering non sequiteur "I'm not your friend/ I never was," you can almost hear the distraught fan blubbing as they make their way for the door. It's icy, remorseless stuff — proof, after all, of David Bowie's claims in "Fame" that success "puts you where things are hollow."
Yet for all the moans, Room On Fire packs a mighty musical punch. Having abandoned sessions with uber-producer Nigel Godrich, the band's decision to stick with the "that'll do" scuzziness of Gordon Raphael fits the mutinous mood perfectly. The delivery is crisp and razor-sharp throughout; the paranoid tone a welcome respite from the legions of identikit retro-rockers happy to use the past as a good-natured boot sale. And what tunes! Ramalama new wave thrash "12:51" could lure even the most reluctant wallflower to the dancefloor, while "Reptilia" and "Meet Me in the Bathroom" ooze the sort of decadence only worldy Manhattanites can manage.
The leap to greatness, however, comes with "Under Control." Over a pared-down Motown-on-mandrax beat, Julian drops his guard, and, like Lennon and Cobain before him, acknowledges that his band have been absorbed by a machine it'll never escape. "I don't want to waste your time/ I just want to say/ I've got to say/ We worked hard, darling/ We don't have no control/ We're under control." If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to have the world at your fingertips — and to wish it wasn't — the answer is in these 33 minutes. -
They Say...
Unlike many bands that release notable debut albums and then take years to deliver a follow-up, the Strokes got Room on Fire out as quickly as possible after their lengthy tour for Is This It. Good thing, too; the two years between their debut and this album were long enough for the expectations for -- and the backlash against -- a new Strokes album to reach formidable proportions. And the Strokes sound like they have a lot to prove on Room on Fire, not to their naysayers, but to themselves. On the surface, the album isn't drastically different than Is This It, but it's not predictable. Instead of delivering an album's worth of "Last Nite"s, "Someday"s, and "NYC Cop"s, Room on Fire expands on their debut's off-kilter and complex tracks, like "Is This It?" and "Hard to Explain." The album's first single, "12:51," signals the Strokes' intent: its whistling, synth-like guitars and handclaps are undeniably catchy, but at first, the song seems to be searching for a structure. Eventually, though, it becomes sneakily addictive -- it's a stealth pop song. Likewise, the album opens with "What Ever Happened?," on which Julian Casablancas snarls "I wanna be forgotten/And I don't wanna be reminded" -- not exactly the likeliest start to what should be a triumphant second album from one of the most celebrated rock bands of the 2000s. In many ways, Room on Fire is the Strokes' bid to be taken seriously, which may be why they began this album with producer Nigel Godrich before returning to Is This It producer Gordon Raphael. To his credit, Raphael gives the album its own sound: it's brighter and fuller than Is This It's low-rent production. Room on Fire also has a distinct attitude. Is This It sounded effortless, but it's evident that a great deal of effort was put into Room on Fire. Yet the album's most crafted moments are its most exciting: "Automatic Stop," a playful, poignant look back at a love triangle, lopes along to a reggae beat (and features the witty lyrics "So many fish there in the sea/I wanted her/He wanted me"). "Under Control," an awkwardly gorgeous homage to '60s soul, is possibly the best Strokes song yet. Several songs recapture some of Is This It's exuberance; not surprisingly, they're the ones that the band wrote while on tour. "You Talk Way Too Much" revs on one of their most Velvets-y riffs; "Meet Me in the Bathroom"'s Motown-like bassline and shimmery guitars add some style to its underlying sleaze. However, the Strokes are a different band than when they recorded Is This It, and Room on Fire's best songs acknowledge that. There's a weariness lingering around Room on Fire like stale smoke, especially on "The End Has No End," a loop of a song about a nagging breakup that repeats its seemingly nonsensical title in a surprisingly affecting way. "Reptilia," meanwhile, sounds like a long night of partying turned sour. "Please don't slow me down if I'm going too fast," Casablancas wails (most of Room on Fire's distortion comes from his vocals, which give the impression that he's gargled with turpentine and brushed his teeth with steel wool for the past two years). The motif of moving too fast and not minding it winds through Room on Fire, reflecting its svelte 33-minute running time as well as the swiftness of the Strokes' career. This compressed feel, the precision of the band's playing and arrangements, and the way every song comes to an abrupt stop sometimes make the album sound too closed-off. Room on Fire's best moments fight against this tendency and suggest that the Strokes are continuing to grow, perhaps beyond what their listeners want from them. Some may gripe that it's never as good as the first time, but Room on Fire shows that even after all that happened to the Strokes, they can still surprise.
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| 01. |  |
What Ever Happened? |
2:54 |
|
| 02. | |
Reptilia |
3:41 |
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| 03. | |
Automatic Stop |
3:26 |
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| 04. | |
12:51 |
2:33 |
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| 05. | |
You Talk Way Too Much |
3:04 |
|
| 06. | |
Between Love & Hate |
3:15 |
|
| 07. | |
Meet Me In The Bathroom |
2:57 |
|
| 08. | |
Under Control |
3:06 |
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| 09. | |
The Way It Is |
2:22 |
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| 10. | |
The End Has No End |
3:07 |
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| 11. | |
I Can't Win |
2:34 |
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11 Total Tracks, 32:59 Total Length
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Credits
- Greg Calbi - Mastering // Peter Phillips - Paintings // Gordon Raphael - Producer // William Kelly - Engineer // Steve Ralbovsky - A&R // Steve Fallone - Mastering // Brett Kilroe - Art Direction // The Strokes - Arranger // Fabrizio Moretti - Drums // Nikolai Fraiture - Bass // Albert Hammond, Jr. - Guitar // Julian Casablancas - Vocals // Nick Valensi - Guitar // J.P. Bowersock - ? // Colin Lane - Photography // Toshikazu Yoshioka - Engineer
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