10 Best Rock Albums Of 2020
7. The New Abnormal - The Strokes
The Strokes have been trying hard to get away from their glory years for decades now. Even when albums like Angles and Comedown Machine had their fair share of high points, it seems that fans will always come back to "well, it's not as good as Is This It though." So how do get over living in the shadow of your previous work? You duck into the studio and make something completely different.
From the first track The Adults are Talking, this is a very different band than who we got to know back in the early '00s. As The New Abnormal progresses, you can feel these guys getting reacquainted with why they enjoyed playing music in the first place, picking apart every bit of their sound to create something new. Sometimes it's a smooth throwback like on the '80s tune Bad Decisions, and other times it's the slow hypnotism of Ode to the Mets.
It also goes without saying that Julian Casablancas hasn't lost an ounce of charisma over the years, strutting across these songs and even letting his falsetto soar beautifully over Albert Hammond Jr.'s guitar lines. Though they may have started life as a bit of a throwback, The New Abnormal proves that the Strokes are still musical veterans who will continue to push the rock genre forward in whatever way they know how.