Room on Fire – The Strokes ★★★★

Year	Album	Artist	Star	Score	Genre
2003	Room on Fire	The Strokes	★★★★	85	Rock	Alternative Rock	Indie Rock

It’s hard to follow up a debut album that reinvigorated an entire genre of music with anything but disappointment, but the Strokes really did the best anyone possibly could have on Room on Fire. 

The Strokes were able to smooth out some of the roughness to make a sound that’s a little more nuanced and songs that were better equipped for conventional radio while keeping their charming, lo-fi aesthetic intact.

Right away from the top, there’s a little more tension in Julian Casablancas’ voice that adds some emotion that was honestly lacking on the first album. Laidback rhythm guitar throughout the record bounces between warm, beachy vibes and these weighty, monotonous layers. 

“Reptilia” is a real rocker that feels more mature musically than the previous record, like driving a sports car vs. the first car you inherited in high school. “12:51” and “The End Has No End” have playful, new-wave riffs and simple, but energetic, drums that create a fusion that’s two part’s the Cars and one part The Replacements, without some of the bluntness.  

So why isn’t Room on Fire as good as Is This It?  Both albums might have a perfect 11 for 11 record in terms of good songs, but I’d say only four or five tracks on Room on Fire reach that “great” level, where seven or eight on Is This It do.  And even if the sounds a bit more mature, the seemingly spontaneous nature of the first record can’t be replicated, and the more dialed in sound losses the looseness of some of Is This It’s more fun and memorable moments, like the bridge on “Alone Together,” the guitar solo on “Modern Age,” or the blissful joy of “Someday,” “Last Night” and “Hard To Explain.”