Have a picture of The Strokes Juicebox?, please send it to us.
| Value for Money | 6/10  |
|---|---|
| Overall rating | 6/10 |
By WSD
on 22nd Sep 2005
| Other Artists Listened To | Pixies, Bloc Party, PJ Harvey |
|---|---|
| Value for money | 2/10 |
| Overall value | 2/10 |
 WSD's recommendation | |
The Strokes first album was 30 minutes of perfection. Every moment of every song was perfectly constructed. There was so much promise in those 5 New Yorkers. They wrote instant melodies, they had great lyrics, they had style, and man could they put on a live show. Then success happened, and a rather ropey second album. But second albums are often ropey, a band is still finding their feet. They have less time to write the songs. They have all the pressure of living up to expectations. But The Strokes seemed more intent on partying than music, and the live shows surrounding the second album certainly proved that. Drunk and stumbling around a stage does not make a good show, nor does it reveal any new hidden depths to boring songs.
Then comes the third album. The band no longer have such expectations around them, so they go away and take some time to produce a third record. They decide it's time to venture away from the formula to try and recreate the energy they had a few years ago. Sometimes it works. This time, well, I don't know what they've been listening to since Room on Fire, but it sounds like it's probably a lot of dodgy heavy metal and 1990's grunge.
"Juicebox" is the lead single from their third album and, quite frankly, it's awful. It does vaguely sound like The Strokes. Julian still sings like Julian, and the last minute descends into reasonably catchy indie-garage rock. But for most of the track it's like listening to a bad attempt at recreating fast-paced grunge metal. Like the band can't decide whether to be the White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, Alice in Chains or themselves. It doesn't suit them and it doesn't work.
The best things about The Strokes have always been the immediacy of their songs, and the catchy melodies and super-cool attitude. "Juicebox" however has, as it's main riff, what sounds like a complete rip off of the Peter Gunn theme song. And some feedback and screeching, and Julian mumbling. It's not immediate, unless you mean immediately off-putting, and there's nothing cool about it.
Here's hoping this is the worst thing on the new album, because if it's the best then it's probably the last you'll hear of this lot.
| Helpful | Unhelpful | Agree | Disagree |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Total Respect: -1
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jcooper02 on 4th Oct 2005
WSD
on 2nd Nov 2005