In two days, The Strokes will officially release their sophomore effort, Room on Fire, to stores. This of course, has touched off a whole new groundswell of coverage on a band that was covered to death from about September of 2001 all the way up to the end of last year. This of course, led to other so-called "garage rock" bands, from The Hives to The Vines to The White Stripes receiving similar critical and media attention. Unfortunately, only the White Stripes deserved the attention, and now, THEY are becoming the media overkill sensation of the year...but I digress, let's get back to the Strokes.

If there was one thing patently obvious about the band's debut record, Is This It, it was that they had a penchant for writing really catchy songs that well, had no replayability after about listen #10 or so. So I guess one could ask whether it was all that catchy, or if we just thought it was because it was different.

With Room on Fire, the Strokes see no reason to change what was so popular and successful in the first place. That's not to say that Room on Fire is an exact replay of Is This It, but that the general sound and production values employed on that first album are still intact.

The album opens with What Ever Happened, which has all the qualities of a Strokes song: jangly guitar rhythms, a bit of a propulsive bass line, and the annoyingly gruff vocals of Julian Casablancas, who has no vocal range whatsoever (say what you want about Joey Ramone, he could at least sing when asked).

Thankfully, the first single, 12:51, isn't nearly as boring. This song is truly catchy and it seems to have a bit more replay value than anything from the last record, and Casablancas' voice isn't nearly as annoying on this song; it's actually rather smooth, although the problem of him sounding like he'd rather be anywhere else than singing these songs continues.

The album closing I Can't Win is a breezy pop song whose title will surely cause some to wonder if the Strokes are already questioning their critical acclaim, even if the actual song isn't really about that at all. The abrupt end the song (and disc) comes to an end on is rather grating though, even a simple fade out would have worked much better in this reviewer's eyes.

Under Control finds the band heading into ballad territory for the first time, although even calling the song that could be construed as being misleading. The band's sound is still pretty much the same, just played at a slower pace. Guitarists Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi can be very irritating in that regard. The few times they do do something different, you immediately stand up and pay attention, only to be ultimately disappointed as they go back to their familiar territory again.

The Way It Is has a nice dirty guitar riff that gives way to a bit of what would seem to be an electronic drumbeat, but that really is drummer Fabrizio Moretti laying down the beat. The song is almost dance-centric but isn't quite catchy enough to really pull it off.

Between Love and Hate plods along, and by the time the song picks up a somewhat catchy rhythm about 75 seconds into the song, you're already bored out of your mind. Meanwhile, The End Has No End starts off with a bit of ferocity, only to fall back on repetitive musical ideas that have already been done to death by this band.

If you ask me, it's a shame the band decided not to proceed with producer Nigel Godrich, instead returning to the producer of Is This It, Gordon Raphael. Perhaps Godrich eventually would have been able to convince the band to rev things up a bit more, or *GASP*, take a few more chances with their sound.

Ultimately, what your left with is an album that recalls Is This It with not nearly enough new wrinkles. I'm sure the trendies and the critics will continue to kiss this band's a*s as if they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. Me? Outside of a couple of catchy tracks, I couldn't be more bored by this band.

And lastly, yes, I'm talking about THE BAND, not THE HYPE OF THE BAND.

On Fire? Hardly. This album is a lot like the Ben Stiller character in There's Something About Mary: full of hope, only to get their d*ck caught in the zipper.







Recommended: No