Product Description

After the huge success of their debut 'Is This It' The Strokes return with their second album 'Room On Fire'. Reunitingwith producer Gordon Raphael the band stick with the New York new wave punk sound that dominated their debut but add a slight eighties feel to their sound. The single '12.51' is also included.

Track Listing

1. What Ever Happened?
2. Reptilia
3. Automatic Stop
4. 12:51
5. You Talk Way Too Much
6. Between Love & Hate
7. Meet Me in the Bathroom
8. Under Control
9. The End Has No End
10. The Way it is
11. I Can't Win

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5226 in Music
• Released on: 2003-10-20
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Rarely has the burden of expectation weighed so heavily as it does on the Strokes' second album. Room on Fire is an overwhelmingly anxious record, where the band's dilemmas are there for everyone to hear: should they make another record as concise as Is This It? Will they be able to capitalise on their wiry winning formula but avoid exhausting it? And can Julian Casablancas be convincingly offhand when we now know how much effort he makes to sound so disinterested? As a result, Room on Fire isn't an entirely successful album, but it's certainly a compelling one--the testament of five handsomely talented men struggling to work out what should happen next. At worst, songs like "You Talk Way Too Much" are paranoid retreads where the Strokes, having minted such a precise and appealing sound, seem doomed to repeat it in progressively more joyless ways.

But there are moments when Casablancas nudges his band into new, promising directions. "12:51" seems malnourished on first listen, but its sulky, understated twists soon turn out to be memorable. "Reptilia", meanwhile, showcases the fabulous--and teasingly underexploited--guitar playing of Albert Hammond and Nick Valensi, being a collection of chiming riffs and tumbling solos that suggest the Strokes should allow themselves the freedom to rock more often. Oh, and "Under Control" is a dream--specifically, one where the Smiths are playing "Tracks of My Tears". Best think of Room on Fire, then, as an album where the Strokes plot their escape from the predictable, but are a little too cautious to make a proper getaway. Courage, gentlemen. --John Mulvey

Customer Reviews

33 minutes of outstanding garage rock
In 2003 The Strokes faced a very difficult challenge - making an album anywhere near as good as Is This It (for me, one of the best albums ever). It's not as good as Is This is - not much is - but it comes pretty close.

It starts with a perfect album opener 'Whatever Happened', followed by the outstanding 'Reptilia'. Albert Hammond Jr's 'Automatic Stop' is a delightful, slower-tempo album track and forms a perfect interlude between 'Reptilia' and lead-single '12:51'. '12:51' is 2 and a half minutes of pop-rock perfection, such a simple and yet effective track with a great guitar riff.

'You Talk Way Too Much' is the closest this album gets to filler or throwaway, but this is based on The Strokes' high standards, and it is a very good song in its own right. 'Between Love and Hate' is another slower song, reminiscent of 'Automatic Stop'. 'Meet Me In The Bathroom' is another catchy 3-minute garage-rock romp, whilst 'Under Control' is a slightly strange song structually, but is definitely a grower.

The latter half of the album is punctuated by 'The End Has No End', an absolutely superb track, which would have fitted nicely onto Is This It. The album ends strongly with the edgy 'The Way It Is' and the pleasant 'I Can't Win'. I would rate the album at 4.5/5, but as there are no half stars I'll have to round it up! Yes, ok, it might be 'Is This It Mark 2' but why change a winning formula?

Thin talents ruthlessly exposed
If it were possible to combine the values of a cynical manufactured boy band with an "indie" identity,then the Strokes could be the living proof. Courtesy of some absurd hyperbole from the UK music press,they swanned onto the scene clutching a look borrowed wholesale from NY band Television and a musical repertoire that truly runs the gamut from A to,er,B. Could their smoke and mirrors appeal survive a 2nd album? No. They turned out this appalling slab of ideas-free, rehashed, lazy filler. It sank like a stone and the over-excited hacks had to bite their tongues as their erstwhile darlings really stank up the room with this tawdry effort. I once went to a party in Brixton where the guests (a group of spectacularly colour-less nobodies) played this album end-to-end. They seemed to think it was good. I sat there pained and agog at how any sentient being could derive anything from the experience other than a homicidal intent. Really, if you respect yourself just be sensible and bin this album then go buy Marquee Moon or Horses instead. This is mechanically-recovered music - cynical,empty, complacent and liable to dull your palate, purge yourself!

A change
I'm not sure as to whether this is actually better than Is this It, certainly as a guitar album it is more packed with great pieces from Valensi and Hammond than their debut was, but I think it suffers this time around from it's shortness and has lost some of its simple garage rock sound on some songs. Better or worse? I don't know but it's certainly still very good.