Transmission: This Is It

I may be in the minority on this, but upon hearing the news that The Strokes would be “reuniting” to record their long-awaited fourth album, as well as headlining this year’s Lollapolooza festival, I seemed to be thinking one thing:

Why do people still give a shit about The Strokes?

Let’s take a serious look at the matter. The Strokes have released one great album, followed it up with a record that was almost entirely a retread of the first, and shattered expectations for a third record which only the most die hard fans could possibly defend. Get real for a minute: How many of you actually like First Impressions Of Earth, front to back? I thought so.

Since the release of that album, four of the five members have embarked on solo projects that have ranged from abysmal (Nickel Eye) to mediocre (Albert Hammond, Jr.), and singer Julian Casablancas appears to be more interested in hocking Chucks and goofing off with Andy Samberg than writing halfway decent songs.

Beyond that, though this may not be through any fault of their own, the garage rock revival the band represented at the beginning of the last decade fizzled out by the time their second record arrived. Their “legacy” thus far seems to consist of inspiring countless sub-par bands to don the Urban Outfitters-approved aesthetic and misappropriate the sound of legitimate rock stars like the Velvet Underground, much like Franz Ferdinand welcomed a plethora of quasi-Gang Of Four clones with none of the substance or longevity that either band has.

With these things in mind, why is the New York quintet still given this much recognition, let alone headlining slots on several of the biggest festivals of the year?

Countless bands have been forgotten after their first record was released, but resting on laurels as well as endless passes given by fans seems to be a particularly problematic trend with major league musicians who audiences identify as leaders of certain musical movements. Oasis similarly released one great record, followed it up with a lukewarm rehash of the first, and after a verbose, overindulgent third album, rapidly revealed themselves to be one-trick ponies. Yet, fifteen years later, the Britpop icons are still one of the biggest bands in rock music.

Guns N’ Roses, though a more extreme case, are yet another example of this trend: an incendiary first album followed by overblown disappointments. That hardly seems to concern fans, however, as the ticket sales for any of their tours over the last fifteen years would lead you to believe that they’re still touring behind Appetite For Destruction. Granted, all three bands have had a handful of hits on their follow-up records, but who goes to see G-n-R to hear the deep cuts from Use Your Illusion?

My point is simple: Do not let this happen with The Strokes. If people were to jump ship now, the band won’t have the chance to achieve “arena rock dinosaur” status, and the spotlight would be given to more deserving bands who can do what The Strokes did, and certainly better than they can do it now. It’s acceptable for groups like Radiohead, whose musical output has only gotten increasingly interesting over time, to be a band the general public rallies behind, as they have their own artistic progression to back themselves up. The Strokes, quite simply, do not.

I enjoyed Is This It? as much as anyone when it came out, but it’s been nearly ten years and the band has delivered on exactly zero of the promises made by that album. I am not ruling out the fact that their fourth album could be fantastic, but how much credit does one band really deserve, especially considering the fact that everything people like about them was pillaged from lesser known bands of the 70s? If the new album is a major artistic step forward for the band, I’ll gladly eat my words, but please – if the record sucks, let this be it.