Strokes, The - New Abnormal

Though the Strokes have cultivated a cooler-than-cool reputation over the years, at least once on every album they reveal the melancholy underneath the facade. On Room on Fire, that moment was "The End Has No End"; on First Impressions of Earth, it was "Ize of the World." For the first time in their career, on The New Abnormal they stay in that emotional space for more than just a song or two, and the results are some of their most rewarding music. Fair warning: the band's sixth album is short on the rockers for which they're famous. On "Bad Decisions," a quintessential example of the Strokes' knowing hedonism that melts some Modern English into its tumbling beats and guitars, Julian Casablancas' jubilance comes from shedding a relationship that was going nowhere. Bitterness is inescapable even on the hazy synth jam "Eternal Summer," where he mutters, "Everybody's on the take." But on these lengthy, brooding songs about leaving and being left behind, the Strokes sound more engaged and