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The Strokes Perfectly Capture Our New Abnormal with The New Abnormal
It took The Strokes about 17 years to figure out what their band should sound like as adults. They figured it out right in time on The New Abnormal.
In the fall of 2001, I was a confused college junior living in Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of 9/11, walking past a tank that was parked outside my apartment building for months. That whole time frame was a blur, until Is This It landed.
The Strokes’ debut album was exactly what myself, and legions of others, were looking for at that time and place. Millions of words have been written about what their sound, their aesthetic, and their vibe meant. There is no album I’ve listened to more in my life. A close second would be their amazing, if underrated, follow-up in Room on Fire.
As they grew up, the Strokes couldn’t quite get a handle on who they were and what their new sound was supposed to be. Subsequent albums had great tracks surrounded by subpar ones, as rumors around the group’s infighting swirled. Their 2013 album Comedown Machine hopelessly divided fans and critics. Personally, I loved it. As I wrote at the time, I would’ve been okay if the haunting ballad that ended the album, Call It Fate, Call It Karma, was their farewell.
Thankfully, it was not.