Who are The Strokes?

If you have ever been looking through the soundtracks for the movies Click with Adam Sandler or the 2002 Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire, you may have noticed a band among the names that stood out from the rest–that being the band “The Strokes.”

The Strokes are an American rock band that was formed in New York City in 1988. Throughout their career, the band has focused on fun and catchy guitar riffs that sound like they're being played on a keyboard. Both guitarists, Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., focused on this tight-knit guitar playing that is beautifully interwoven into indie rock melodies. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti provide both simple and complex components. Over all of this is lead singer Julian Casablancas. Julian’s voice over the mixture of instruments results in a unique sound that hasn't been heard much before.

The Strokes came out of the gate with an incredible debut, Is This It. The album officially dropped in July 2001. Is This It was an immediate success and originally had minor record labels bidding for them. The album eventually went on to appear on numerous “greatest album” lists. Is This It consists of some of the band's strongest music. Although they still had time to develop their sound on their next album.

The next album dropped by the band was Room On Fire.  Released in October 2003, this album only solidified their placement. The album brought back the same energy from the debut and improved on almost every aspect. While riding the success of both albums, the band toured around the world and was even able to perform on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

During September 2005, a new song was leaked online, and the song was a single from their third album. The single then eventually made it to online download services, where it eventually became a UK Top 10 Hit as well as a US Top 10 Hit. On January 3rd, 2006, the band released their third album, First Impressions Of Earth. The album at first received mixed reviews, but that hadn't stopped it from debuting at number four in the U.S. and number one in the UK. The album also became the most downloaded for two weeks on iTunes. The album received the worst reception commercially and critically compared to the rest of their albums, despite the accomplishments.

During the downtime between albums, both Julian and Nick commented that their next album would be a mixture of 1970s rock while at the same time, "music from the future.” This change in direction was due to every member having hands on deck rather than just Julian who wrote a majority of the material. Eventually, on March 18th, 2011, their 4th album, Angles was finally released. The album also had mixed views with the new sound. Some fans appreciated the new sound while others wanted them to go back to the basics. But overall, Angles was decently received.

After the release of Angles, the band started to workshop fresh ideas, and a main part of the band’s growth was an evolving sound with each new record. Suddenly two years later, on March 15, 2013, the band released the album Comedown Machine. This album had absolutely no promotion and showed up out of the blue. The reason for this was a desire to “return to the scene.” Comedown Machine was received with mixed reactions, as per the last few albums. The non-promotion of the album didn't help at all, either, even though there were standout tracks that kept that energy and sound from the past few albums.

During 2016, Valensi discussed the idea of a new album and what it would be like. He described that the band was in a very long and tedious writing process. In May of 2019, they debuted a song from the album, “The Adults are Talking.” Eventually, one year later, the band released their latest album, The New Abnormal. The album had been one of their best-received in a while, even winning Best Rock Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. Specifically, the song “The Adults are Talking” became a hit and is currently their most listened to song on Spotify.

In 2022, The Strokes hinted at another album, but to this day, there is not much news regarding a new album. As of right now, it seems like the band is primarily playing at festivals and nothing more.