The New York band The Strokes delivered with the most talked about album of 2001. On that debut they already had the entire group concept perfectly arranged. A cool band name, a collection of strong songs and a deliberately under-produced sound that finally gave the serious press the idea once again that they had discovered a band straight from the street. On the second album Room On Fire they are
… carefully working to reach a larger audience. The production is a bit fatter, but otherwise it immediately sounds familiar at the first sounds. With eleven songs in 33 minutes, The Strokes show themselves once again master of limitation, there is not one note too much. However, for the first time a compositional dip can be heard, halfway through the record. The executioners who are ready to write The Strokes off again on this basis are doing the band short. Before that, the bidding on Room On Fire still rises high above the competition in the crowded garage-lock segment. (MS)more