Strokes, Room On Fire - Rightio, this is the 2nd album from the kings of indie rock, The Strokes. I could just say it's brilliant, cos it is, but I'll explain why too.

The strokes had a lot to live up to after their outstanding debut album "Is This It." The world knew they could produce great songs like "Last Night" and "Someday," but could they make any more? All will be revealed .....

They start off the album with "Whatever Happened" and for all Strokes fans it is a pleasure to hear Julian's voice once again. This song is fairly upbeat and has some great little neat guitar solos elegantly placed in there too.

They continue on with "Reptillia," which is a stunningly in-depth track. It's a technicaly complex song, which, to be fair, I would not have thought the Strokes would have been capable of beforehand. Really shows off Albert Hammond Jnr's talent.

Followed by "Automatic Stop" and this is something new from the New York boys. Julian tones his voice down a little from "Reptillia", for this slightly apologetic (lyrics: "why can't ya waittttttt") and soothing song, especally with its nice bass line which will have you humming for days.

4th Track "12:51" and woo, what is that sound they're making. Unbelievably it's done on guitar, it sounds futuristic, yet retro, pumped up, yet mellow. But it's not all Nick's guitar and Julia's voice, there is far more to discover from the subtle hand claps to Albert's nifty guitar work.

Forward and onward to "You Talk Way Too Much" is a fast, rough song with only the tiny short guitar solo providing much neatness. Julian really lets fly here. So we're at the middle of the album, do we want more? Damm right we do.

"Between Love and Hate" and well, to be honest, this song is in between'y. It's not bad , it's not great, it's slow. Not one of my favourites off the album, but its better than what a lot of bands can muster up.

"Meet Me in the Bathroom" is up next, now some of you may have heard this before, it was out there on the internet. It's a cool song, has meaning to it and the guitar work is nothing short of great.

On to "Under Control" and I've never heard anything from The Strokes like this before (see they are changing). This is song is like Fab (the drummer) has pushed his way to the front and wants to be taken notice, & it works.

"The Way It Is" is a busy buzzing song that slows down pleasantly in places. Diferent tone and slightly different sound to the other songs.

We're getting near the end with "The End Has No End". Very prominent guitaring, this song is alive and that funky sound from 12:51 is back. It's bouncy and this is about the point where you wish the album was a little longer.

"I Can't Win" is a nice end till their next album from the 5 piece band. It's happy, alert guitar strumming at the begining is like a cheerful wave goodbye, as usual there is always time for Julian to go a little mellow and then right back up again. A good end to a very good thing.

So that's it, the art work is cool and retro, the cd art is neat and The Strokes and there sound as I'm sure it will forever remain...is cool.

I'm a big fan of this album "Is it as good as Is this It?", why does everything have to be compared , they're diferent. If you have "Is This It" you'll want "Room on Fire", if you don't have "Is This It" and you get this album, you'll want it. Great stuff from the Strokes.

I saw the Strokes live in Australia at Melbourne's Big Day Out and felt that they were just going through the motions on stage. I can accept that can be hard on a tour to make every show exciting. However, the same criticism can be applied to Room On Fire. Not many attempts to write any songs that offer new insights into the bands composing and arranging talents. They have a successful formula and they stick to it with no experimentation. This seems to be a limitation of many current "indie" guitar based bands, the Dandy Warhols being a case in point.