Not some fucking musical expert here, just a consumer with eyes and ears. Picked up the new album by The Strokes, First Impressions of Earth, today. Judging from their debut, the classic Is This It is foolish because they've moved on. Whether that's good or not, another thing maybe.

The first thing I noticed is the impressive album art. "Ask Me Anything"... real strange track. Got nothing to say, again and so on. Enjoying the subliminals. CAN OUR MIND EVOLVE TO BE SOMETHING OTHER THAN AN EXTENSION OF OUR ANIMAL NEEDS? Almost had missed that one.

Function o'th' artwork looks to have the songs as vignettes o'sorts, each own's style. Declares Julian Casablancas, "An entire generation that has nothing to say." Rob Sheffield limitedly praised it, their efforted junior-album with compliments of "ambitious, messy ... forward momentum" to "a killer groove band."

But personally it's the poignant moments of "Killing Lies" and "Evening Sun" that, for whatever reason, take me back somewhere to an unconscious, impossible collective memory, not quite my own, also not quite all of ours. Hard to explain.