The Strokes - Angles
Critic Score
Based on 44 reviews
2011 Ratings: #555 / 1031
User Score
2011 Rank: #259
Liked by 225 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

90
musicOMH

Disjointed, hyperactive, experimental, whatever. Angles is the album to beat this year.

83
A.V. Club

Once miscast as game-changing saviors of the underground, The Strokes have proven once again with Angles that they are actually one of the era's top mainstream pop-rock acts, uniquely gifted at crafting catchy, radio-ready rock songs at a time when such a thing seems like a quaint remnant of a distant past.

80
Drowned in Sound

It’s The Strokes trying on a load of outfits to see what fits and personally, I think a lot of them fit well.

80
NOW Magazine
Indecision and infighting have rarely sounded this solid and inspired.
80
Uncut
Perhaps they should have been more democratic in the past, because this is a terrific record that plays to The Strokes; Strengths and also adds fresh colour to their palette.
80
Clash

While The Strokes have outgrown any notions of being rock’s saviours, in doing so they could just have delivered what might be their best album since ‘Is This It’. It’s certainly their most diverse.

80
Alternative Press

Angles ends up being one of the group's more compelling efforts, rather than the casualty of experimentation it could have been.

80
Loud and Quiet

It remains enviably exciting, classically cool and features the kind of guitar pop highlights that only The Strokes can make wholly credible.

80
Rolling Stone

With its sudden-U-turn songwriting and curt execution, Angles is the best album that Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti have made since 2001's Is This It, the cannonball that inaugurated the modern-garage era.

80
Sputnikmusic

While Angles lacks a definite image, it is the band's best purely musical statement, and as the band members explore their 30s, perhaps it is time for them to retire their young, aggressive punk image and become successes in the first sense of the word -- strictly musical.

80
The Irish Times

Angles works splendidly, and is a salutary reminder of how adept they are at shaping indie-pop moments.

80
Q Magazine

Angles fits 10 songs into a brisk 34 minutes and doesn't waste time gunning for gravitas.

80
SPIN

On Angles, the Strokes' trick isn't fooling us into thinking these tunes fell to Stanton Street fully formed. It's that a group of reunited rock stars somehow come on like wide-eyed kids.

80
Consequence of Sound

It’s a sultry exhibition, one that spotlights the band’s strengths, yet also its weaknesses.

80
Paste

There aren't many instantly identifiable bands that can mess with the familiar recipe while somehow also honoring it, but that's precisely what the Strokes have achieved on Angles, an album as warm as it is cool.

77
Coke Machine Glow

Too many people will listen to Angles once and declare it a train wreck. Please, don’t do that. Give it a few extra chances. Once you get past the initial WTF-ness of its odd first impressions, you’ll find the tight songwriting that initially drew you to this band endures.

75
Beats Per Minute
The good news is that The Strokes have delivered a good album. The bad news is that for all its throwback production, it doesn't really sound much like The Strokes, and many of their longtime fans are probably going to be disappointed in an album that doesn't retreat to the sound of the band's glory days with its tail between its legs.
74
Spectrum Culture
For better or worse, the Strokes seem and sound the same as they ever did.
70
Classic Rock
New York posh rockers stretch the seams of alt indie.
70
The Sydney Morning Herald
Despite nods to the lean, melodic garage rock of the Strokes' debut record, the songs here are far too diverse to adhere to the pop-slaying aesthetic of 10 years ago.
70
The Needle Drop
On their latest LP, the Strokes want to head in a new direction, but they can't decide on one. So they use every track to obtain a different sound.
70
NME

‘Angles’ isn’t perfect, but if it marks a new phase of creativity and togetherness for the group, then it could be more of a success than even ‘Is This It’.

70
AllMusic

Ultimately, Angles' best moments are reassuring rather than exciting, offering proof that the Strokes can still make an album together, and hope that it'll come more naturally to them next time.

67
Pretty Much Amazing
It finds the band at their most confident, and their most relaxed.
67
Entertainment Weekly

Angles reveals a newfound earnestness: For the first time, it actually feels like the guys are trying.

60
The Independent
Comeback albums, it seems, are not just for other bands to do.
60
Record Collector

Most importantly, they don’t actually do anything new – there’s not a note on Angles that they haven’t already played thrice over before. Still, when it works, no one’s better at that louche, three-chord melodic simplicity and vocal standoffishness, delivered with just the right amount of scuzz.

60
Evening Standard
Julian Casablancas and co have been doing some thinking: This Is It.
60
Mojo
Angles homespun demeanour is key to its appeal. There are flaws.
60
Slant Magazine

Angles 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.

60
The Skinny

Though Angles does sparkle occasionally with slices of apparently effortless pop suss, there are numerous songs clearly plucked from the mental bin marked “filler”.

60
American Songwriter

When 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.

60
Under the Radar

They'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.

60
No Ripcord

The 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.

60
PopMatters

It’s odd that a group that’s pretty much better than anyone else at being too cool for school sometimes seems to be trying too hard on Angles.

59
Pitchfork

Not a roaring comeback as much as a glorified spit-balling session.

50
DIY
Ten years ago, The Strokes posed a clever rhetorical question: Is This It? Seems we finally have the answer.
45
Prefix

Most 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.

40
The Guardian

Plenty 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.

40
The Telegraph

It would be nice if Strokes albums, which now fall from the sky at lengthening intervals, arrived as a welcome reminder of how exciting and cool rock music can be. Since 2001’s era-defining debut, Is This It?, however, this hasn’t been the case.

30
Tiny Mix Tapes

The Strokes aren’t simply a great let-down, but the best-band-that-should-have-broken-up-long-ago.

20
God Is in the TV

Angels is bloody terrible. It’s awful, it’s dire.

lilchefremy
85

Man, I just love The Strokes so much.

Machu Picchu and Life is Simple in the Moonlight are fucking amazing songs.

PipePanic
90

BAND BINGE: THE STROKES (PART 10N OF 21ENTYONE)

Oh boy this album had an uphill battle coming for it.

This album is set in a really interesting yet sanctimoniously depressing point in The Strokes discography. Taking almost two years to actually finish, tensions were beyond high in the band. That tension could be pointed to a number of things that we as the audience could never fully understand, but if I had to take a shot in the dark, i'd say maybe it could be due to relationships in the ... read more

ST4T1C
80

A slight return to form for The Strokes, however there are a couple issues with this album in my eyes. Ill start with the positives, the highs on here are really damn great! “Manchu Picchu” and “Under Cover of Darkness” are super great singles and openers, and “Life Is Simple In the Moonlight” is one of the best closers they’ve put out since their debut. I also really like the aesthetic of this album, as it feels like their most experimental album in ... read more

clarkr
70

More Strokes. Who I love! I usually stroke alone, but I stroked with others during this album.

Descendingpixel
82

First time they successfully altered their formula for the entirety of an album without just reverting back to is this it. It’s not a dramatic change to their formula, nor is it perfect. The album has its issues but I think it’s successful. It still draws a lot from is this it, but it doesn’t feel desperate nor does it feel like an empty shell of its former self. A nice change of pace, solid listen.

ithixf
90

this album is very hated but it's honestly my favorite Strokes album, it's very experimental and i feel like the genre differs from a song to another which i love. great album

Purchasing Angles from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Year End Lists

#5/Gigwise
#46/The Fly
Sign in to comment
2h
2w
3w
1mo
1mo