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the strokes room on fire

i actually wasn't that crazy about the strokes debut is this it. yeah it was catchy, and there was nothing offensive about it, but it just didn't move me. maybe it was the repetitive airplay of "reptilia" on XM radio that drove me to buy room on fire - but i think this one's even catchier...and musically a little more complex. this album seems to get a lot of mixed reviews, but i'd ignore those and give this album a try..it's stuck in the turntable.

musically, "reptilia" and "12:51" remind me of a gap commercial, well a gap commercial before they went earth wind and fire on us ( "oh-ee-oh, say do you remember? oh-ee-oh, dancing in september? oh-ee-oh, never a cloudy day-ay..." or something like that). it's guitar bass and drums with a few keyboards sprinkled in..just enough keyboards to be reminiscent of the early 80's east-coast-pre-new-wave-kinda-punk sound the strokes are derived from. television, the cars, you got it.

my only complaint is that this disc is kinda short. barely over a half hour...but to be honest i'd rather have a solid half hour of rock than an hour disc made up of half filler which seems to be the norm these days. so good. keep the filler for b-sides where they belong so you can release a b-sides compilation in 5 years we'll all love.

enjoy.

[buy at amazon]