Room On Fire

10/24/2003 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor

Somehow in rock's limited vernacular--and punk's even smaller vocab--the Strokes have found a way of talking that's all their own. Sure, everyone talks about their "New York" new wave punk influences and tips of the hat to Brit post-punk like Wire, but really, from the first note of their second album, you're fully aware of who this is. And unlike a lot of groups, it isn't the emergence of the lead singer because the singer dude here is as anonymous as they come, with his generic Richard Hell yips and Iggy Pop gestures. Nope, the sound of the band working together, the sum of the parts totaling their own thing, is what you're hearing here, which coincidentally also means that their second album sounds much like the first. Sure, they sneer in "You Talk Way Too Much" with the machismo of angry young punks. But this is mostly more angular rock from guys working quite the angle.