Indoor Fireworks - Room (The)

Room On Fire - The Strokes In Blazing Form

Advantages: The same brilliant music as the fantastic debut; great vocals, melodies, background - all superb
Disadvantages: Not inventive enough to please critics, but this doesn't harm the album.

When The Strokes came to record their second album, they must have felt quite some pressure. The superb debut had won glowing reviews across the board, and the task of matching it's quality, let alone exceeding it, was surely gargantuan. Not only that, but modern bands are expected to mature and develop their sound in very short periods of time. They couldn't merely improve on 'Is This It?' - they had to actually change the formula, and make a clear progression, if they wanted to achieve anything like the same acclaim. When 'Room On Fire' was eventually released, critics didn't take to it in the same way as the band's debut. It didn't receive too many put-downs in terms of quality, because the second effort is actually just as good, and maybe even better than, their first. The reason it wasn't welcomed quite so warmly is that it was ...

jonwebb5 28.07.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Room On Fire - Strokes (The)

The Room Is On Fire As She's Fixing Her Hair

Advantages: All 11 tracks are amazing
Disadvantages: The two year wait between albums

Two years ago The Strokes took the World by storm with the release of their debut album Is This It. The band had already built up a big reputation, being moved at Reading from the Radio 1 tent to The Main stage and then returning a year later to headline. A quick and rapid rise that has seen them release the follow up to 2001?s big hit with Room On Fire almost 2 years to the day after the debut. The much anticipated album has now been released though and having had a few weeks of listening to it, I?ve finally decided what I actually think about it. The album is a short punchy 33 minutes long and is produced by the same producer as the debut offering, Gordon Raphael. Of course it wasn?t all easy going, Raphael originally wasn?t meant to be producing and the band had actually finished the album back in June. However they were unhappy ...

Andy.mack 22.11.2003 (22.02.2004) · Read full review
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Review of Room On Fire - Strokes (The)

The Strokes - Room on Fire

Advantages: It isn't rap
Disadvantages: pessimistic theme and dodgy lyrics

of feeling into the words. There appear to be no harmonies at all. I read where someone said of ?Room on Fire?, ?The indecypherable lyrics are crazy if you take the time to actually decode them.? I think ?crazy? is a little too kind. When lyrics ? which are essentially poetry that are set to music ? lack form and meaning there is no craziness necessarily. There might be if the artist is doing a Jame?s Joyce or T.S. Elliot and radically experimenting with the forms and conventions of a genre. It would be a bit flattering to say that of this album?s words. They sound great and they sound cool but they don?t say anything that isn?t ambiguous and unclear. Who said what and to whom most of the time? When poetry is ?bloody awful poetry? to quote Morrissey, it isn?t because it?s crazy ? it?s because it doesn?t make much or any sense ...

FlameDruid 17.09.2004 (18.09.2004) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Room On Fire - Strokes (The)