Things are quiet still with The Strokes but a track some of us have been anticipating for the last month or so is Julian Casablancas song with Daft Punk. Instant Crush is beautiful, Julian has some serious 80s vocals going on but somehow still manages to sound full of longing and sadness.

Edit: The Sound Cloud link has been taken down already, listen to it at this Tumblr blog

News round up

+ Comedown Machine sold 96, 000 copies worldwide in its first week, this is considerably down from Angles which shifted 177,000 but with no promotion or live dates the band must have expected this

+ Julian is rumoured to be appearing on Daft Punk’s new album, Random Access Memories [via Kobini]

+ Whilst Fab is going to be on Har Mar Superstar’s new record Bye Bye 17 on a track called Prisoner

+ Hottest band of the moment Haim covered I’ll try Anything Once for a recent radio session, Danielle of course was part of Julian’s touring band.

+ Three new t-shirts are now available at the band’s official store

+ Albert attended a Q & A session at a recent screening of Woody Allen’s Bananas, you can find photos here

Gallery Update

Albert and Fab attended the premiere of The Company You Keep on 01 April

Albert attended the premier of Trance on 02 April

Thought it would be fun to find out what the fans favourite songs are from Comedown Machine, because I personally find it too hard to pick just one you can vote for up to 3 songs.

There has been much speculation over the artwork for Comedown Machine, the Is This It portraits cast as silhouettes could seem like an ominous sign for the future of the band but Albert reassured fans on Twitter last night that whilst it was the end of an era that it was meant to simply represent the end of their cycle at RCA records

“@jakeprice24: @alberthammondjr The Strokes as a band cycle? Or just The Strokes on RCA cycle?”Obviously the RCA cycle

— Albert Hammond, Jr. (@alberthammondjr) March 25, 2013

Check out the scans at the link below.

Gallery: Artwork: Comedown Machine: Album

The Strokes are back taking risks with their sound and are all the better for it

Whether you loved, simply liked or were deeply disappointed by The Strokes last record, it is clear that without Angles Comedown Machine could not have happened. That album was a learning curve, the first step of the band writing and contributing to songs together.

It was also part of the slow evolution of their sound that really has been happening in every record post Is This It.  Whether with the slow Motown inspired Under Control, the minimalist Ask Me Anything, the rockier edge of some of the tracks from First Impressions of Earth or the 80′s tinge of Angles.  Despite what the press would have you believe The Strokes were never just a standard Rock ‘n’ Roll band they always had other ideas and other influences just waiting to come out.

When I wrote my Angles review I noted that “I’d rather they keep on evolving musically and in the case of Julian vocally than churn out the same old songs just to please people. I could end up hating their fifth record but if it takes chances and goes into new directions then I would at least respect that”

Turns out this was pretty spot on, only I ended up not hating the new sound but embracing it wholly.

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