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Mar 21, 2011Though this band was routinely slapped with claims of 1970s plagiarism upon their arrival, it's unlikely that many people have ever mistaken a Strokes song for one by Lou Reed or Television. So it's ironic that their mimicry can be uncanny on Angles.
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Mar 21, 2011If the Strokes keep their word that better things are yet to come, Angles could be seen in a different light in due time, the album where they worked through their late-in-coming growing pains and found themselves at a fork in the road, not the end of it.
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MojoApr 22, 2011Angles homespun demeanour is key to its appeal. There are flaws. [Apr 2011, p.95]
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Apr 18, 2011They're maturing gracelessly, still in love with the fool's gold myth of rock and roll, which is precisely why Angles succeeds as a record.
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Mar 17, 2011Plenty of great records have been made in an atmosphere of terrible acrimony. But Angles just sounds like an album made by people who really didn't want to make an album.
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Mar 21, 2011Angles is a document of the Strokes operating more as a task force than a real band; even though the album's allegedly fractured recording sessions resulted in the first Strokes LP to feature writing credits from every member of the band, this is more of a show of individuals tinkering with each track rather than any true cooperative effort.
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Mar 22, 2011The Strokes have managed to culture a great sense of the schizophrenic on Angles, mapping polar tones in tandem to produce a record that feels both confused and entirely deliberate.
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Mar 16, 2011Angles ends in a horribly frustrating manner, with none of the assurance of "Take it or Leave It" or "Red Light." No, Angles, even in ending with its strongest song, dies the way it lived: in sheer ambiguity.
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Mar 18, 2011Comeback albums, it seems, are not just for other bands to do.
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Mar 28, 2011Most of Angles finds The Strokes trying as hard as possible not to sound like The Strokes. This is done, in part, by recycling the least palatable parts of their last LP, and interpolating them with weird, near-atonal choruses.
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Mar 22, 2011Is this it? Don't feel ashamed if that's your initial reaction to the Strokes' new album, the natty New York rockers' first in five years. Stick with it, and you'll be rewarded with a record that's completely oblivious to expectations and past glories.
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May 2, 2011When all is said and done, Angles could make for an exciting introduction to a new chapter for The Strokes, or it could be a disappointing swan song.
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May 10, 2011The result is mixed and at times strained, but a spark still lies within.
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Mar 21, 2011These songs don't sound anxious, or troubled, just lacklustre.
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Mar 22, 2011Coming from a band who blatantly don't want to be a band any more, Angles is inevitably disjointed. But it's not disastrous.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 216 out of 266
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Mixed: 41 out of 266
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Negative: 9 out of 266
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Mar 23, 2011
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Oct 3, 2011
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Mar 28, 2011