The Strokes: First Impressions of Earth [RCA]

Why you'll love it

This RCA pressing is on 180g vinyl with a printed inner sleeve and a poster. The album gave the band three singles, "Juicebox," "Heart in a Cage" and "You Only Live Once," and Robert Christgau singled out "Ask Me Anything" too.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Printed inner sleeve
• Poster included
• Numbered

About the album

For their third album The Strokes took their time, ten months of it, and went looking for a bigger sound. They started with Gordon Raphael, who'd produced the first two records, then brought in David Kahne (Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Sublime) at Albert Hammond Jr.'s suggestion, and Kahne ended up steering most of the album.

It opens with "You Only Live Once," as bright and bouncy as anything they've done, before "Juicebox" lands with that grinding bassline and Julian Casablancas at full howl. "Heart in a Cage" is a tense, wiry rocker, "Razorblade" is pure pop, and "Ask Me Anything" swaps guitars for a mellotron and a quiet confession. Further in, "Electricityscape" and "Ize of the World" push the riffs harder, and "Red Light" closes things on a jaunty note.

The front cover is Ohne Titel, a 1968 painting by Lothar Quinte, and the back borrows from Günter Fruhtrunk. Fourteen songs, two German abstract painters and a poster, which is a lot of culture for one record and slightly more than our break room has seen all year.

Also at Kops: more The Strokes on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On RCA, a reissue of the 2006 album.