From the Black Mountain Hills of Dakota: Rocky's Log - Music Diaries

Repo
BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

RockyRaccoon wrote:

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First Impressions Of Earth by The Strokes

For the life of me, I've never understood why this is considered one of The Strokes' weaker albums.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd imagine part of it is a time and place thing. This was their third album after Is This It and Room On Fire, both of which are classics, and I'll admit that First Impressions is a bit of a step down from the first two albums, so I can see in a time and place where The Strokes pump out two incredible albums, for them to then release an album that's a bit of a step back (even if it's a minor one) how that would be magnified into a more negative reception.

However, what's so strange to me is, listening to this album right now (and it's always been a favorite of mine), I feel like if you really enjoyed Is This It and Room On Fire, you probably would've liked this too. Maybe it's because The Strokes can be a bit one-note sometimes - while I love Room on Fire, it's definitely just doing Is This It over again, and maybe doing that a third time started to wear some of the shimmer off the band.

I'm not sure. I still think this is a great album. The main complaints I've heard about this, which have been generally focused on Julian Casablancas, don't feel unique to this album. Casablancas's voice is basically the same, it's what it always has been, and as for his lyrics, could they be better? Sure, but I mean, he wasn't exactly writing groundbreaking poetry on the first two records and I don't imagine too many people come to the Strokes for insights on the human condition or anything.

It's strange. But regardless of why this album is constantly slept on, it's excellent. If I was making a Strokes Greatest Hits album, I'd definitely put Juicebox and Vision of Division on there, and I might even put Heart in a Cage on there too.

Even Room On Fire got some backlash at the time. It's just that the press needs a story and most people are more than happy to go along with that story. I myself have been VERY guilty of this. Embarassed

RockyRaccoon
Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?

Gender: Male
Age: 33
Location: Maryland

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Repo wrote:

Even Room On Fire got some backlash at the time. It's just that the press needs a story and most people are more than happy to go along with that story. I myself have been VERY guilty of this. Embarassed

Could be!

I really think it was a time and place thing. The Strokes were massive when Is This It came out, so everything they did was magnified, which means an album that's good but not as good as the ones before it is seen as this massive failure. And it's funny, because honestly just about every Strokes album kinda sounds the same (and I'm not complaining, I love their sound), so it's kind of like, if you enjoyed their other stuff, you're probably gonna like this on some level too
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Repo
BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

RockyRaccoon wrote:

Repo wrote:

Even Room On Fire got some backlash at the time. It's just that the press needs a story and most people are more than happy to go along with that story. I myself have been VERY guilty of this. Embarassed

Could be!

I really think it was a time and place thing. The Strokes were massive when Is This It came out, so everything they did was magnified, which means an album that's good but not as good as the ones before it is seen as this massive failure. And it's funny, because honestly just about every Strokes album kinda sounds the same (and I'm not complaining, I love their sound), so it's kind of like, if you enjoyed their other stuff, you're probably gonna like this on some level too

I think u brought up two other key points. 1) Is This It was a massive debut album and it set expectations sky high.
2) The Strokes never surpassed their debut. Is This It became This Is It and people were, rightly or wrongly, expecting more than that. So many bands are weirdly measured by how they evolve. And The Strokes weren't having none of that. Instead they defied the tastemakers and kept putting out consistent albums of similar sounding indie rock. Now with the passage of time, we can just appreciate three great albums of indie rock, but at the time "What would the Strokes do next?" was part of the baggage that fell on their albums after Is This It.

Repo
BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

Repo wrote:

RockyRaccoon wrote:

Repo wrote:

Even Room On Fire got some backlash at the time. It's just that the press needs a story and most people are more than happy to go along with that story. I myself have been VERY guilty of this. Embarassed

Could be!

I really think it was a time and place thing. The Strokes were massive when Is This It came out, so everything they did was magnified, which means an album that's good but not as good as the ones before it is seen as this massive failure. And it's funny, because honestly just about every Strokes album kinda sounds the same (and I'm not complaining, I love their sound), so it's kind of like, if you enjoyed their other stuff, you're probably gonna like this on some level too

I think u brought up two other key points. 1) Is This It was a massive debut album and it set expectations sky high.
2) The Strokes never surpassed their debut. Is This It became This Is It and people were, rightly or wrongly, expecting more than that. So many bands are weirdly measured by how they evolve. And The Strokes weren't having none of that. Instead they defied the tastemakers and kept putting out consistent albums of similar sounding indie rock. Now with the passage of time, we can just appreciate three great albums of indie rock, but at the time "What would the Strokes do next?" was part of the baggage that fell on their albums after Is This It.

And... they would come back in six years and successfully tweak their formula with Angles! So they did successfully evolve as well! And people STILL weren't happy. Brick wall

Personally I like Angles even more than Room On Fire and First Impressions.... It's very fresh.