The Strokes - "Angles" What we have now, and what to expect

"Angles" comes out in 13 days. Luckily, we already have half of the album at our disposal, along with 30 second clips of the rest of the songs.

The five songs we have right now:
Machu Pichu
Under the Cover of Darkness
You're So Right
Taken for a Fool
Life is Simple in the Moonlight

Want them?

Fine, here they are! http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IZU1T3TD

'Machu Pichu' - So someone's been listening to some Bob Marley and Michael Jackson. Very tropical. The chorus brings it back to classic Strokes, "I'm just trying to find, a mountain I can climb" followed by some awesome bar chords from Nick. As far as openers go, this is The Strokes worse, still good, but no where near the same league as 'Is This It?' 'Whatever Happened' or 'You Only Live Once'.

'Under the Cover of Darkness' - I've already discuss this below. This has the potential to be one of the best song son the album. It IS The Strokes, this is it! If you don't like it, then you don't like the essence of The Strokes. Take everything in "Is This It" combine it with "Room on Fire" and you'll get 'Under the Cover of Darkness'. Fact.

'You're So Right' - Radioheadesque. No one saw this coming. Very similar to 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place' by Radiohead if you replace the acoustic with that electric, futuristic feel. Has a really impressive guitar solo, very aggressive. This could become an awesome opener for their live shows, simple repetitive lyrics, never really slows down, it'll get people moving. But on the album, it lacks that power and just falls flat.



'Taken as a Fool' - Typical Strokes formula, Julian singing with an instrument backing him and playing the same notes he's singing ('12:51'). His vocal melody reminds me a lot of Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers during some verses. This, like 'Under Cover of Darkness' feels like their early stuff mainly through the subject of the song, elementary but awesome, just about someone who wants to be respected.

'Life is Simple in the Moonlight' - This song brings me to tears. I don't even know what it's about. The way how the keys harmonized with Julian's voice is astounding, The Strokes have never closed an album with a soft and slow song, instead using classic tracks as 'I Can't Win' and one of my personal favorite Strokes songs 'Take It or Leave It' I'm glad they've changed this, because this is a great closer.

Full review of "Angles" will be up soon since it'll probably leak this week. Hopefully it'll be better than what we have, if not then I'll be disappointed.