The Strokes
Angles

There are bands who burn brightly then, unable to recapture what made them so fantastic to begin with, fade into obscurity.

There are bands that burn brightly, self-combust and fall apart, and are remembered fondly by all for their brief, shining moment in the sun.

Then there's the Strokes.

They roared onto the scene out of nowhere in 2001, releasing a fantastic, stripped-back debut – Is This It – a classic the day it was released.

But a decade and three vastly inferior records later, they're still here, still taking up magazine column inches and as far from fading away as a band who barely still exist can be.

To be fair, Angles – the third entry into the Strokes' post-debut trilogy of disappointment – is the best of the bunch, though that's not really much of a compliment.

It kicks off with its best track, 'Machu Picchu', an odd melding of the Cars and '80s reggae that gives way to the record's most memorable – yet oddly stiff - guitar riff.

'Under Cover of Darkness' was the obvious single, being the closest thing here to repeating the Strokes' classic sound, alongside 'Gratisfaction'. The fomer works, but the latter just sounds like a lazy retread when compared to tracks like 'You're So Right', which genuinely push the Strokes into new territory (even if it's territory Radiohead conquered a decade ago).

This awkward juxtaposition continues throughout Angles – it's taken them four albums and 10 years to shift their modus operandi from 1979 to 1980, yet they're audibly reluctant to leave behind the decade that spawned their sound.

It's the first album the band apart from Julian Casablancas took a part in writing as a team, yet recorded in bits and pieces, often with only a single member present – and it shows. The songs no longer ebb and flow – rather than the fully-formed, self-contained gems Casablancas bought to the band in the past, they're instead pieced together from disparate scraps, the former band dictator's vocals often the only glue holding the mess together.

Even then, he often comes off as lazy, duplicating whatever melody the guitarists have already laid down, with the Ric Ocasek mannerisms of 'Machu Picchu' and 'Taken For A Fool' the only real standouts.

Still, the fact it's at least something a bit different elevates Angles above the last couple of records the Strokes have put out, but considering Casablancas already did the '80s thing on his solo album, Phrazes for the Young, it's a little pointless.

Try it if you like: The Cars, Yeasayer, The Clash's Combat Rock
Buy Angles from iTunes