1. In Her Prime
The Strokes’ fabled history tends to start with The Modern Age EP, eventually released via Rough Trade. Back then they were a remarkably tight band – the booze-soaked, ramshackle quality was deceptive. Landing before the breakout, though, In Her Prime gives an insight into the cobbled-together group who would soon stumble through their first steps. Part of a collection of demos self-released in 2000, it’s a slippery beast, looser than any of their subsequent output. In three heady minutes, Julian Casablancas sounds as if he’s trying to channel every rock’n’roll hero from past decades. On the one hand it’s a rare insight into the Strokes before they developed a full identity. But on the other, there’s a remarkable similarity to one of their latest tracks, Threat of Joy. Both share a similar swagger, despite being separated by a decade and a half. Some things never change.
2. The Modern Age
For purists, the story really begins with The Modern Age in 2001. At the time, everything the Strokes stood for rallied against the current chart flavour. Making the EP the single of the week in the NME, Kitty Empire kicked off the magazine’s love affair with the band, writing that their reference-steeped rock crusade was bracingly different to the time’s “hot sound [of] 80s synth ballads”. Comparisons to the Velvet Underground never subsided but the sheer energy of the Strokes’ first steps felt fresh and new: they reinvented the traditional route by adding a charge and enthusiasm that can’t be taught. The hype surrounding The Modern Age has rarely been matched since, and it irritated some. There’s even a Tumblr, The Strokes are Illuminati, which attempts to claim that the band’s rise has been due suspect ties than decent hard work. Whatever the route, they remain one of the 21st century’s most unforgettable breakthroughs, still capable of stirring gold from the honeypot.
3. Someday
When the hype eventually hit boiling point, the band did their best to deflect attention. “It’s not like fuckin’ Beatlemania,” guitarist Nick Valensi claimed at the time. Crucially, they were aware that the buzz could move on instantly. Scruffy, leather jacket-sporting, nodding to relics of the past – this surely couldn’t be in vogue for much more than a couple of years. Plus they’d been together for three years by 2001, despite the “overnight success” tag. Alongside producer Gordon Raphael, they set about capturing a moment on their debut album Is This It, compressing and containing the headrush of New York in less than 40 minutes. Someday’s opening lyric, “In many ways they’ll miss the good old days”, captures the essence of their early work. Despite an awareness that the good times wouldn’t last for ever, they were determined to make the most of their creative spree. “I ain’t wasting no more time!” barks Casablancas at the close.
4. Last Nite
An awful lot can happen in just under two decades. Infighting, out-of-body experiences, solo projects of all ridiculous shapes and sizes. One thing that hasn’t changed is Last Nite’s impact – it still has the power to send tremors, and persuades kids to form bands. It’s on a tiny list of songs that can turn a tragic party into an unforgettable night with the flick of a switch. Is This It’s most successful single has outlived the indie club’s heyday and soundtracked drunken stumbles for decades.
5. 12:51
Against the odds, the Strokes were in the big league come album No 2. Slash was appearing in their videos, Roman Coppola in the director’s seat. Was success going to their heads? Not necessarily, but their dislike of the press certainly wasn’t subsiding. Quizzed on religion by Rolling Stone’s Neil Strauss in 2003, Casablancas summed up the don’t-give-a-shit default by retorting: “I’d like to just get to a point where maybe we can say something that will be matterful. That’s definitely not a word, by the way. And I look forward to the future, blah, blah, blah, blah.” This was after reaching for the “stop” button on Strauss’s dictaphone. They’d reached a point where everything was going to happen on their terms, or not at all. Sessions with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich were scrapped, so they went back to basics with Raphael. At the time, their follow-up album Room on Fire was dismissed as being too similar to Is This It. These days, excitement levels at their gigs rise when they even slightly nod back to the 2001-2003 era. 12:51 finds a sweet spot between their refined, tighter playing style and the pressures of churning out records to a deadline. I Can’t Win’s final lyric, “I’ll be right back,” suggested another triumph was waiting in the wings, but what followed was a spell of absence.
6. Juicebox
With each return, the Strokes run into a wall of critics who claim it’s not like the good old days. Even by 2006, they were being written off as incapable of rekindling their early fire. It must have been tempting to self-destruct – and to some extent they did. Guitarist Albert Hammond Jr remembers little of the sessions around their third record. “I was balls-to-the-wall fucked up, so it’s hard for me to judge,” he told Pitchfork in retrospect. Three years on from its release, Casablancas told the Guardian’s Tim Jonze that First Impressions of Earth wasn’t up to scratch. But listen to the record and you wouldn’t believe its creation had been a joyless experience. Juicebox finds the frontman at his most deranged. Valensi’s guitar is another calling card, 10 times more sophisticated than at the band’s beginnings but capable of striking with the same edge. For all the hints from their camp at a potential end-of-days crisis, Juicebox is the kind of single that could kickstart a career, let alone keep one in bloom. It remains their highest charting single, peaking at No 5 in the UK.
7. Hawaii
Despite the New York liftoff, the Strokes spend much of their lives thousands of miles from home. Jet-setting’s been a way of life for decades, and never is it referenced more than on Juicebox’s B-side, Hawaii. Stamps racking up on his passport, Casablancas surges through various places and states of mind. LA, New York, the UK (“Where the sky is dark”) all get a shout out, but “paradise on Earth” is the 50th state. The frontman sounds as if he’s clutching the wheels of a plane leaving the runway, he’s so caught up. Cream of the offcuts, Hawaii could easily slot in as a highlight on their last three records.
8. Under Cover of Darkness
Things were at their most fractured during the recording of 2011’s Angles. By this point, new projects were taking priority. Casablancas turned solo with 2009’s Phrazes for the Young. Hammond had two full-lengths to his name. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture started his own project, Nickel Eye. In 2008, drummer Fabrizio Moretti put out Little Joy’s self-titled debut. Everyone besides Valensi had their own outlet, and the guitarist was remarkably candid in saying: “I’m of the opinion that you’re in a band and that’s what you do. If there’s leftover material and time, then sure, by all means. But if you’re playing material that you haven’t even shown to your main band and you’re just sort of keeping it for yourself, I’m not a big fan of that.” On Angles, Valensi seems to take matters into his own hands. Under Cover of Darkness finds Casablancas moaning about how “everybody’s been singing the same song for 10 years” (the single’s accompanying video gives a reference point to Last Nite, as it happens). Meanwhile, Valensi’s doing his best to stir things up, trading blows between riffs that would slot neatly into previous records, and razor-sharp sections determined to tread new ground. Though far from their greatest moment, it still gives hints of a band intent on keeping the wheels turning.
9. One Way Trigger
Credit where it’s due – these five have spent a lot of time running away from their glorious shadow, trying to reinvent themselves. And on the rarely lauded Comedown Machine, they truly hit new notes. One Way Trigger won’t be considered a classic by many – it’s the Strokes meet a-ha – but it’s a landmark reinvention of their rough-edged trademarks. Previous efforts to flip formula, from Ask Me Anything’s shuffling keys to the weird paranoia of Games, don’t quite strike the same balance between old and new. There might be a happy ending to these previously fruitless attempts, after all.
10. Oblivius
On the band’s new EP, Future Present Past, it sounds as though something may have shifted. Miracles do happen, and the Strokes actually sound as if they’re having fun again. Nothing can capture the momentum of their first steps, but with a knowing wink to their past, Oblivius is a fearless leap forward. It contains Valensi’s showiest arpeggio solo since the Room on Fire days, and should allay any fears that the band might be shuffling towards a sad, sorry end. Casablancas told Beats 1’s Zane Lowe the EP’s main purpose was to “kinda get back some of the mojo”, and they succeeded by setting off fireworks. The frontman might have found a new political muse, too, referencing a “wolf” of Wall Street. No real surprise, given all the Noam Chomsky links on the newly established politics section of his own website.
