“Like their excellent debut and sophomore albums, this new project is track after track of well-structured, no bullshit pop-rock.”

This February, The Strokes headlined Bernie’s concert rally in New Hampshire. At one point, Julian Casablancas brought the audience on stage and, shortly afterward, bumped into a policeman while singing “New York City cops, they ain’t too smart”. Somehow, this was not the sole highlight of their performance. Just a few minutes earlier, Casablancas had announced the release of The New Abnormal ­­– their first studio LP in seven years – after premiering the gorgeous animated music for its first single: ‘At The Door’.

The repetition of an outdated motif could have been a recipe for disaster, leading to The New Abnormal sounding stale and uninspired, but the genre deviations on several other tracks prevents that from happening.

Two months (and two more singles) later, The Strokes have finally released The New Abnormal. Like their excellent debut and sophomore albums, this new project is track after track of well-structured, no bullshit pop-rock. The same crisp electric guitars and subtle vocal processing that they utilized while exploring their early garage rock sound is also present on cuts like ‘Bad Decisions’. This repetition of an outdated motif could have been a recipe for disaster, leading to The New Abnormal sounding stale and uninspired, but the genre deviations on several other tracks prevents that from happening. The aforementioned ‘At The Door’, for instance, is filled with the kind of throwback synthesizers, rich vocal harmonies and poignant songwriting (“use me like an oar/get yourself to shore”) that you might find on a solid art-pop record. Similarly, the airy bassline and gated reverb drums of the very summery ‘Eternal Summer’ make for an interesting blend of electronica and new wave; it’s almost tragic that the odd mixing and unnecessarily long outro take away much of the track’s enjoyment.

Of course, the role of superstar producer Rick Rubin was imperative in crafting the sound of The New Abnormal. Being the sole producer for the album, Rubin helped Casablancas and Company ensure that The New Abnormal feels cohesive, fresh and diverse. Even on your first listen, it becomes clear that a lot of time and effort went into its production. The thumping percussion and mellow arpeggiation on the verses of ‘Not the Same Anymore’ make for a simple yet infectious melody that goes into overdrive on the chorus, creating one of the most satisfying hooks in the entire album. Following this, on ‘Ode to the Mets’, a bleak guitar and almost ghostly synthesizer seem to test our patience through much of the track. Right as it begins to frustrate, however, the band pulls the rug from under our feet and delivers a staggering outro.

The lyricism on The New Abnormal is generally plain – it gets the point across but often lacks subtlety. “Please don’t be long, I want your love”, Casablancas beckons to a significant other on the spacey ‘Selfless’; “I want new friends, but they don’t want me”, he complaints on ‘Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus’. To be fair though, when he does get poetic, it just turns into a trainwreck. My case in point here is ‘Why Are Sundays So Depressing’ — from the head-scratching “like a swan, I don’t miss swimming” line to what seems like an awful Lou Reed impression on the second verse, the track is a mess from start to finish. Even Hammond Jr. and Valensi’s guitar work cannot save it.

The emotional punch that some of the cuts on The New Abnormal lack due to lukewarm songwriting is reinvigorated simply by how authentic the joy or sorrow in Casablancas’ voice feels.

On the other hand, Casablancas’ vocals remain consistently strong. Not only does he show great range, delivering solid falsettos on tracks like ‘Eternal Summer’, but he also manages to sound incredibly emotive throughout. Resultantly, the emotional punch that some of the cuts on The New Abnormal lack due to lukewarm songwriting is reinvigorated simply by how authentic the joy or sorrow in Casablancas’ voice feels.

Save for an occasional bad apple, The New Abnormal is still the most ambitious and consistently gratifying record that The Strokes have put out since Room on Fire in 2003. Sure, many of the themes presented are a bit superficial, but that does not mean that the songs containing them are not enjoyable.