Album review: The Strokes, 'Angles'
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Like the hip-hop and R&B producers who have dominated pop radio this century, the Strokes bring precision to every note they massage, manipulate and lock into place on their fourth album, “Angles” (RCA). They’re panning for pop gold by dividing their latest album in half: the first part to remind audiences what they were, the second to imply what they might become.
After five years of growing-apart pains, in which four of the five band members worked on side projects or solo albums, the Strokes have reconvened as a fragile democracy.
Who’s in charge on “Angles”? Everybody, and it sounds like it. Whereas singer Julian Casablancas micro-managed the group’s first three albums -- including its 2001 new wave-of-new wave landmark, “Is This It” – he’s sharing the songwriting this time with guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti.