Room on Fire

Where their debut - from the title's absent question mark onwards - was a kind of energised shrug, their second album is a defiant step forward: the sound of a band at once staying where they ought to be and really getting somewhere.

Room's similarity to its predecessor ultimately bespeaks a purity of vision, not a dearth of new ideas.

The second album from the New York garage rockers is a pivotal step in the band’s evolution.

An adrenaline-fueled head-rush of precision-perfect pop tunes about modern life.

A triumph of excellent songwriting and fabulously co-dependant musicianship, ‘Room On Fire’ is the perfect second album: it builds on their early promise whilst developing at a steady enough pace to suggest that they could still get better.

Better than its predecessor.

‘Room On Fire’ is a refining and tinkering with The Strokes sound, a carefully calibrated attempt not to fuck up too early in the face of untold temptations. The results are still sleek, sexy and thrilling, with a tantalising promise of even better to come.

Room on Fire isn't a huge progression from Is This It?, but it stands as a more polished version of the style that the Strokes have always employed.

Room on Fire ultimately proves itself a worthy successor and by far one of the year's best pop-rock albums.

In the face of hysterical expectation, the Strokes have resisted the temptation to hit the brakes, grow up and screw around with a sound that doesn't need fixing -- yet.

His remarkable performance enlivens even the album's most underwhelming passages.

The Strokes come across as a world-sized band that's tethering itself ... Nonetheless, this record is good.

If you bought the first album and loved it, you'll probably love Room On Fire just as much.

The too-obvious (and too constricted) influences discernible on The Strokes' debut have been smoothed and moulded here into something more uniquely theirs, while the comparatively tight focus of Julian Casablancas's lyrical concerns confirms the initial impression that this albums is a more homogenous offering than Is This It.