First Impressions of “First Impressions”

The new Strokes album, “First Impressions of Earth,” came out a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t had an opportunity to pick it up until an hour ago. The reviews are correct – it is certainly a departure from their first two albums, which were tight, fast, and catchy, to be blatantly honest. The new album is quite obviously an attempt to branch out and expand their sound to avoid pigeonholing themselves. My first impression, though, is that I like it. I’m not sure I like it more than the first two, though.

Unfortunately, it takes me 20 or so listens before I can really form any sort of lasting picture of an album, and particularly for a great one, it could take months, even years for me to decide just where it lands in the great totem pole of historical significance. From that perspective, I believe it would be very difficult to be any sort of critic, musical or otherwise. I noticed that Roger Ebert named “Crash” the best movie of 2005 recently, and as an avid reader, I can tell you that’s not the movie he scored the highest last year. But after he chewed it up, had some wine, let his stomach settle for a while, and came back for seconds and thirds, his opinion must have changed a bit.

So stay tuned for my review of the new Strokes CD, which will be appearing here in a year or so. Maybe.