The Strokes
Angles

Can Plato be used to review an album?

Maybe it might be a bit pretentious, but to describe the new work by The Strokes, this quote fits perfectly.

"Angles" comes out a good five years after its predecessor, which in musical terms equals an eternity, bringing with it a colossal load of expectations, which inevitably lowers the level of clarity with which one should approach an album.

Having said this to ease the tension a bit, let's immediately answer the main question.

Is "Angles" a good album? Does it hit the target? The answer is yes, but with some reservations.

The fourth album by The Strokes is, by their own admission, the first collective and democratic work the band has ever undertaken. "Angles" is no longer one person's effort shaped by four others, but rather a work created by ten hands.

A piece in which various sources of inspiration, styles, melodic and instrumental choices converge, held together by what we can now define as the Strokes factor; and here, Plato returns.

If before there was a clear and direct style, now we are faced with a multitude of stimuli:

80s pop songs, Caribbean rhythms, electronics, psychedelia, glam, etc., and the Strokes manage to hold this melting pot together wonderfully, giving it a beginning and an end, in other words, giving it a precise systematic imprint.

The Strokes reinvent themselves without succumbing to false sirens, but instead, they demonstrate a good dose of courage. In fact, "Angles" is primarily a studio album, and certain songs are hardly replicable live with a five-piece band. This choice shows that more than focusing on the next tour, the New York quintet aimed for a sincere search and sound fusion, and this in 2011 is anything but a given.

But democracy, as we know, comes at a price, and the Strokes have paid it.

Along the way, they lost some elements that distinguished them, like their more rock and garage side—"Angles" definitely veers towards more pop shores—and their straightforwardness and incisiveness, at times getting lost in some excessive stylistic games, creating a sense of confusion previously foreign to the group.

But nonetheless, the fact remains that they have managed to accomplish one of the most difficult things in nature, to dissolve the one into many and bring the many back to one, and this is already in itself a success.

PS

A little note for Strokes fans. "Angles" is not and will never be "Is This It," ten years have passed, the world has changed, the Strokes have changed, and so have we all, and it's right that it should be so.