challenges for fourth album

Jun 13

challenges for fourth album

Posted by aleaiactaest on

O.k. so here are the challenges for the 4th:

The strokes are already pretty known, Julian´s voice is familiar, all established by the three cds we know now.
Will they come up with a totally new direction?
Or will they stick to the first- impressions- direction and only have new songs in the same sound?
If they want to get more experimental- will that make for a fan- friendly cd?

Replies for this Forum Topic

Ok the music market is in peril everywhere and for every band/ artist. Unless they start up with ringtones the super-profits are over. The mo comes from the concerts, which they sure will like a lot. I think they are great market- strategists anyway and dig this sort of the thing. ( " It´s all about the money. Like Christina and Britney")

So surely the next album wil sell less, but I don´t really think their time is over, simply because most people don´t know them yet. They really haven´t bloomed up yet. If you´re asking me the Beatles would have the same problems nowadays. Maybe they need a counter- band , like the Rolling Stones or like Oasis and Blur.

I Love Reading All The Posts From Fans That Dig The Strokes As Much As I Do
Its Funny Guys We Can Only Wonder Wtf Julian Casablancas Is Spilling Out Of His Head
My Personal Opinion About The Challenges Are These...

1) I Know We Are All Waiting Impatiently For New Strokes Material And This Freakin Break Is Beyond Annoying
But I Think Its A Positive All Around Cuz Julian Really Needed To Reassess The Direction Of The Band
ITI Was The Album That Started It All, There Was No Pressure To Make Those Songs, But ROF Was Concieved Ina
Turbulant Time When The Guys Especially Julian Were Partying A Little To Hard, Still That Album Was Freakin Awesome.
FIOE, Made Them Sound Huge But Didnt Catch On As They Hoped It Would And They Dedicated Alot Of Time Recording
That Album, Its No Secret That FIOE Was A Commercial Dissapointment But I Have No Doubt It Will Be Appreciated In The Future
For This Album Julian Has No Pressures Really...He's Home Taking His Time Composing Each Part Like He Always
Has And I'm Sure Its Stuff Thats Gonna Blow People Away, My Hope For This Album Is That Julian Can Finally Be Recognized
For The Gifted Composer He Is.

2)Alot Of People Are Sayin Album Is Being Delayed By Alberts 2nd Album, I Honestly Dont Think So
I Think Albert Will Indeed Be Tired From Touring But I Think His Guitar Parts Will Already Be Written So He's Just Gonna
Go In And Play His Part Cuz I Think For This Album Julian Will Be More In Charge On The Composing Side Jus Like With The 1st Album

3)I Dont See The Big Deal About Pharrell Producing The Album Really, I Know He's Considered A Hip Hop Producer But
I Think He Has Good Enough Taste To Do A Good Enough Job Cause He Shows Good Signs Of Diversity.
The Problem Is That Pharrell Doesnt Have The Power He Had A Few Years Ago, Its Not To Say He Isnt Talented
Its Just That The Music Business Has Changed From His Style From A Few Years Ago.
Hearing Him Produce A Few Tracks Would Be Intresting But I Kindve Would Like To See One Producer To Hear One Sound
But I Dont Know....

4)Sadly Guys For As Much As We Are Anticipating This Album I Honestly Think It Will Sell Less Than FIOE,
Its Not That Im Putting The Guys Down But Honestly The Music Business Has Changes Since ITI Hit In 2001 And Also
Since January Of 2006 When FIOE Hit Stores.
This Generation Doesnt Appreciate The Strokes Contribution To The Music Business And The Present Music Style
In FIOE Julians Lyrics Were So Brilliant And Genius That Im Just Amazed Ppl Didnt Pay The Attention It Deserved
I Understand That Some PPL Dont Like The Whole Political View Thing But You Have To Say Something
Honestly Im Surprised That The FIOE Lyrics Were Sumwhat Understandable Cause Julians Previous Stuff Is
Very Opaque But So Cool,...Imagine Julian Writing A Direct Love Song??? LoL
I Highly Doubt The Strokes Will Take The Commercial Road And Sell Out But Hey We Never Know.
Cuz Remember The Strokes Were Gonna Use Nigel Godrich For ROF And We All Know
How That Turned Out.
Hopefully The Strokes Are Mature Enough To Make Good Decisions For The Sake Of The Band
Whatever That May Be...

The problem with trying to figure out what the Strokes could or should do is that it's like regular people trying to figure out what Einstein should work on and what he will figure out. haha They know better than anyone what they should do. They are the geniuses after all.

Maybe that would be the best advice for them -- to listen to themselves -- not someone else. Maybe no producer? Or is that crazy? I know nothing about music.

The only thing.. I just pray to god they don't go political. To me it seems like, if you go political, that means you are out of ideas. How many great bands start their careers doing political albums? And how far would they get that way?

I think the reason I feel that way is because everyone is always political. Everything is political. It's too easy. It's like Doc Brown in Back to the Future.. "you have to think 4th dimensionally, Marty".

Make songs about stuff no one would ever think of.. people will probably find more answers for life and politics that way anyway..

The hip hop direction is probably really not the best idea, even though I like the converse song a lot. It´s much fun. But not suitable for the strokes as a whole band, cause you can´t p-diddy nick all of a sudden, or eminem fab. It would look funny, but only for a moment.
Thing is: they need to concentrate on what they can do best, but not reproduce. So the opera- elements you said sound cool to me too, FIOE maybe had some of that.

I opt for honest rock. Maybe a choir on one song? Would be cool.

My personal opinion on this is that I think going a jip hop route or somehting would be totally wrong. Which is why IMO that new piece he did for converse isn't so hot. It seems like Julian doesn't fit in there..

I think they should try to explore some aspect of of their music that's already there.. but do something different at the same time. I think what is so greta about the Strokes is how complex their music is.. but not pretentious in any way.

It's super tight and really well thought out and technical. So maybe if they had someone with a classical music background produce their next album. Then they could maybe explore that angle even more.. make their music even tighter and more complex and try to incorperate some elements of classical music composition or opera or something really weird.

[quote="ChicagoPete"]I bet they go to a more "blues" sound, like the guitar in "Clear Skies". It doesn't really matter what they do, they've proved to me to be the best band out there.[/quote]

"Clear Skies" sounded more Northern-Soul to me, such a great song. "blues" reminds me of shitty guitarists on open-mic nights just hammoring away terrible solos. I think the Strokes could go heavier in a "Heart in a Cage" direction as Nick's lead guitar work kicks soo much ass on that track!

[quote="ChicagoPete"]They should add more harmonica in their songs and a nice blues guitar solo to some songs. If the strokes went more blues with Julian's voice dragging out some of the words it would be perfect. I'm not talking a country Harmonica, but like a G Love & The Special Sauce harmonica where its in the background of songs[/quote]

I think a blues direction is definitely possible, and it would sound great because its the Strokes. But I also think they might go back a bit before they were really big so their sound would be kind of harder and less clean. Faster too. But either way I doubt I wouldn't like anything that came from them.

^ Hahaha, no I don't mean full-out reggae. Yeah, I can just see it now: Julian decides to grow dreadlocks and sings while playing the steel drums. :lol: I just personally really like reggae and I know Julian does too, then when Brandy of the Damned came out, I got curious haha. But I think that's the farthest they'd ever go towards the reggae spectrum. I know they've said in interviews before they're very influenced by reggae and they express it through some of their songs so I'll notice it every now and then, but it's never very upfront.

[quote="Elle"]^ That would be pretty awesome if they did.
Personally, I think it'd be really cool if they did something more reggae-like. Ever since Nikolai made "Brandy of the Damned" I think they'd sound awesome with a reggae style.[/quote]

[color=#FF0000]EEEK reggae :shock: *twitches*... if they have to please let there be no steal-drums it'd send me over the edge... don't get me wrong Nickel Eye stuff sounds smashing and I love The Clash but don't let em' go full out reggae... nooo way man, I'z not diggin the reggae!...[/color]

okay if the strokes make an album w/ crappy pop and shit im gonna be so mad i mean they are a rock/indie band are't they?! i love them and all of there songs so but personally i wouldnt love it if they did an album more like a a mix of is this it and first impressions of earth kinda imbetween but any way i will love them and i always will <333

jules <33333333

And yeah, Julian does write the parts for the instruments as well. For example, I remember reading an article with either Nick or Albert saying that Julian wrote the solo for Vision of Division on a 12-string guitar. And in all the albums, its credited as saying "Words [i]and[/i] music by Julian Casablancas" meaning he created all of it. So it's not a matter of if he's able to play, it's just if he wants to. But I kind of agree with robotfrom1984; it might mess up the already-established dynamic of the band. But I just want to see Julian play 'cause I've never actually seen him do it; it'd just look very interesting.

Two directions they could go and I think Albert gave us a sample of one. They can blend the albums by sing the guitar riffs and major chords of ISI and ROF, using the productions of FIOE. Add Julian's sarcastic and negative lyrics, you'll have a perfect gem(keep it around 40-45 min). Or they can add other sounds and instruments. Piano, organ, horns, etc. This will give them different sounds to there already powerful music. No matter what happens, I'll be money that they have 2 or 3 albums worth of material to bring to the world. That seems to be the trend.

It's my guess that they are more likely to move away from their ITI/ROF sound and become more experimental like with FIOE. It's just typical that once a band gets recognized for having a distinct sound they always want to gravitate away from it and try new things, not because they didn't like their inital sound, but more because they just don't want to be known for recording the same album 5 times over. I think The Strokes kind of felt that when Room on Fire came out and critics said that it was just an extention of Is This It as opposed to something new and different. That's why Julian said in some interview I read that FIOE was kind of like their [i]real[/i] second album because they finally branched out more and developed something new and different.

mm i think the challenges for the strokes are do a better record that FIOE , and i think that they have realized that Is this it ? Was awesome!!, room on fire was good, and FIOE was average! soo they want to be awesome again like the old times! they are awesome to me but a lot of people think they are not that good like they just to be!:S
i think that they need to do something like is this it! and not like FIOE , don't get me wrong i like FIOE but there's some bad tracks on FIOE like 15 minutes, fear of sleep that i just don't like!

soo in my opinion they need to get to the basiscs again!

I think with first impressions they kind of made all directions possible. It surely had newer elements esp. compared to "is this it". For example " fear of sleep" is a song that would never fit on is this it. ROF was more pop, FIOE more rock to me.

I remember one interview that I can´t find now, where esp Fab sounded like they wanted to try a lot of different things. That sounded more "experimental" to me, though I don´t know what that sounds like.

I remember that I came across the interview through a link that was posted in the old message board, but I lost it and after some search on google nothing comes up. I remember not that it was like in November 2006, and it surprised many of us because it implied that Julian was already working on new stuff and it seemed like it would be such a long wait....

It's so annoying that they take so long, the thing is that it's their job, they have not much to do really apart from some other artistic stuff they make (and Albert with his solo career), so sometimes I think about it and I get a bit depressed that the best band of the new century can't be more productive... At least I know that I will love every single song of their next album as with the three previous ones.

Also about Julian playing, I remember someone mentioned in the thread I started that there was a video of him playing the guitar, composer or something on youtube, and he composes most of the music for the songs so he could definitely play the guitar and compose it so that it works with three.

I think that they will go for more of a "bluesy" sound because Albert will have more influence because of his solo project. I also think that they'll go for a beefier more classic sound like in Electricityscape or Ize Of The World. I hope Julian doesn't pick up a guitar. Not because I doubt his abilities but because I think all of them already have their own style with what they do. But I trust that they'll stick with the simplistic sound that they have on the three previous albums.

^ Do you have that interview you mentioned with Julian about the fourth album, or remember where you got it from?

And that's an interesting proposal of Julian actually playing guitar. I think they honestly could pull off having three guitars if they wanted to. Come to think of it, I'd really love to just [i]see[/i] Julian play. That'd be pretty awesome.

God I can't believe I forgot to mention this, it's a thought I already gave after FIOE came out and observing that although the guys were exploring a lot they didn't vary much what they did. Well, I think that it would be good if Julain played they guitar in at least a few songs from the next album. There have been other bands in the past with 3 guitars playing and if they work it out well it can sound very good, I just can't imagine the strokes with another great guitar sounding... The possibilities would be so many... Also if any other member played another instrument in some songs it would be nice... Without of course loosing their style.

FIOE was an album that broadened their music so much that they could take various directions, and what I think is that they might either choose one, or try to take each possible variation in style with a song or two and make an even more diverse album. Both would be great works, the first one because after it they would know if what they want is to continue that way or have it as a one album of such style and go for something else, and the second one because they would be doing something that nearly no band has ever done, achieve progress in their sound without closing doors.

I agree that the blues-type sound will probably be more present in the fourth album. Specially Nick's guitar and Nico's bass, it surprises me that people don't realise how well they combined in every single song of FIOE, much better than in the previous two efforts. I also remember that about a year ago (or probably more) in an interview Julian was asked about the fourth album and he said that what he was composing at the moment was quite crazy, that it was taking their music as far as it can get and that it sounded as a mixture of folk with punk, and I got a really good sensation from that: first because it described exactly the aspect of the Strokes that I could never express so well that made them simply special, which is having so american-ness in their songs, sort of like folk mixed with velvet-underground-kind-of-pop, and a freshness and rockness as mixing indie rock with pure ramones-style-punk. And the second reason is that it made me believe strongly in a fourth album, which I was finding hard to imagine after FIOE, as their progress in each album has been towards showing more and more of each of those roots they have, and an album that could be described as folk meets punk, would be just a magnificent work of art - one of the best albums ever.

Well these are some initual reflections on the next album, I have more if there is any interest...


[b]FIOE was full of musical "doors" , I'm curious to heard which one(s) they'll chose to open ...
as long as they're faithfull to themselves it'll be great...

It depends if Pharrell will produce the new album or not. Then they will definetly get a new sound.

^ That would be pretty awesome if they did.


Yeah, the way I see it they can go in one of three directions. One being back to their roots with an Is This It/Room on Fire sound (but I doubt it, since they said they wanted to move away from that with FIOE). Or they could do another FIOE sounding album, which could be possible. Or finally, they'll just go in a new direction all together, which is what I'm guessing. But if anything I think it'll sound closer to FIOE than ITI or ROF.