Listening Post: The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth

The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth - 2006

THe first strains of "You Only Live Once", the opening track of First Impressions of Earth, The Strokes' 3rd album, is scarily reminiscent of Queen's "I Want to Break Free". And the more it plays, the less like the Strokes it sounds and the more like 70s classic rock. It's tasty and fun and suggests that the band may be ready to stretch. The two of the punch is "Juicebox", whose bassline is a direct rip of Peter Gunn or The Munsters, depending on your favorite black and white 60s theme song preference. After that intro the song just keeps it's driving energy, superb guitar noodling and tautness intact. It's excellent. As is the 3rd track, "Heart in a Cage", filled with tribal drumming and a calliope of guitars, the song is a merry go round ride.
So, why did the album fail so hard? I confess, I didn't listen to it, either, even though I have it. (I think it was obtained during a debauched "12 CDs for a Penny" club experience)
Was it just a backlash or was the album as mediocre as its reputation?
It turns out the backlash was sort of deserved. Where previously The Strokes had given us tight, taut, pop-sleaze, after the opening few tracks it feels like they simultaneously stopped trying and tried to hard. "Razorblade" sounds phoned in and headache inducing and when Casablancas sings "I'm tired of everyone...." on "On The Other Side" I can't help but believe him. The ugliness really shows it's head on "Vision of Division" a sort of Strokes meets Muse meets System of a Down nightmare that makes you wonder, "You guys couldn't find anything to cut on this album????".
There are glimmers of goodness tucked inside the morass of wayward experimentation, like "Electricityscape", which, had it been the lead track (and the album 4 cuts shorter) might have resulted in a better received work. But, as it stands, First Impressions sounds like a band that has not only run out of ideas but is bored with the ideas they do have, those ideas and styles having boxed them into a corner that has their shortcomings stand out like an albino in Africa.

Grade: C-
ASide: You Only Live Once, Juicebox, Heart in a Cage
BlindSide: Electricityscape
DownSide: Vision of Division, 15 Minutes, Fear of Sleep