Around the release of Is This It, it became such a cliche to compare The Strokes to the Velvet Underground, the Stooges or Television that it was almost verboten in the music press, no matter how well it applied. The same comparison cliches came a year later with Interpol and Joy Division and last year with Vampire Weekend and Paul Simon/"Upper West Side Soweto." For the Strokes' fourth album, however, frontman Julian Casablancas had made sure to list two influences that may have never been mentioned in the same paragraph in the history of the music press, much less the same sentence.

Discussing with Rolling Stone magazine the recording sessions of The Strokes fourth album, and first since 2006's dissapointing First Impressions of Earth, Casablancas named the pair of unlikely influences:

"Some of the new stuff has a Seventies vibe, like Thin Lizzy or Elvis Costello ," he says. "But then some of it is bizarre music from the future that we're trying to tone down to sound catchy. So we're trapped between the future and the Seventies."

I'm trying to imagine a techno mashup of "The Boys Are Back in Town," and "Pump It Up," and it sounds terrible in my head. I guess that's why The Strokes are the musicians and I'm the middling music critic.

Additionally, it seems that intra-band squabbling has been reduced. According to Casablancas:

It feels like we're new," says Casablancas. "We didn't used to be honest — there would always be minifeuds over stupid shit. Now, if Nick [Valensi] and Fab [Moretti] or anyone are saying they like it fast or slow, we'll talk about it, as opposed to saying, 'Well, I never liked you sister.'"

The as-of-yet-untitled album still has no release date, but in a message to fans,  manager Ryan Gentles said it could be after 2009:

"I wish I could tell you that this definitely meant we can expect an album release date before the end of 2009, but it's just too soon to speculate on that for sure yet," he wrote. "One way or another...suffice to say, the work has begun!"

We've been hearing hype about this album since last summer, so 2010 seems like an awfully long time to wait. Still, it's been nearly 10 years since The Strokes released their debut, and the fact that people are still eagerly awaiting a new album from the band is no small accomplishment.

[ NME ]