4 Out Of 5 Stars
The Strokes' "Comedown Machine" sounds like it just dropped down from the mid-80's. There's plenty of skritchy guitar work and an overabundance of synthesizers, with Julian Casablacas both singing in a falsetto and in his usual distorted style. You may think I exaggerate, but the first time I heard "One Way Trigger," I was prepared for the band to break into a cover of A-ha's "Take On Me." Yes, it's that derivative.At the same time, it's absolutely The Strokes. It may be hard to believe, but this album is arriving 10 years after the mucho hyped debut of "Is This It," so anyone expecting The Strokes not to mature a bit probably needs to do a little growing up themselves. The band themselves acknowledge this on "All The Time" as the plead "You're livin' too fast," and as they explore dance rhythms on "Welcome To Japan," which is something the older, more hyper-active Strokes would have not bothered with in their younger days.
"Comedown Machine" is sometimes a bit too much of a vacuum production-wise, as, like "Angles," the sound is often cleaner and slicker than a whistle. That doesn't stop The Strokes from indulging in a bit of experimentation, like the title track or the ghostly falsetto on "Call It Fate Call It Karma." (Somebody's been listening to their old Iron and Wine albums...) "Comedown Machine" is a fun album from a band that has gotten old enough to have lost that early exuberance, but not too old to settle for a conformist view of album making.
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