Strokes – Angles

The Strokes Angles arrived in 2011 as one of the most anticipated rock records in years, a fourth album carrying the weight of a five-year silence and a fanbase that had never stopped paying attention. Released on RCA Records with catalog number 7534722, this is the CD pressing of a record that brought the band back into sharp focus after the sprawling ambition of 2006’s First Impressions of Earth.

Why the Strokes Angles Still Holds Up

The five years between First Impressions of Earth and Angles were long enough that any return was going to be scrutinized hard. What the band delivered was a record that threads a real needle: it carries some of the textural ambition that made their third album such a departure, while pulling back toward the directness and momentum that defined Is This It and Room on Fire. That balance is exactly what makes Angles interesting as an album, not just as a comeback. It sounds like a band working through something rather than coasting.

What You Get on This Pressing

This is the standard RCA CD edition, catalog number 7534722, ten tracks running from the opening groove of Machu Pichu through the closing stretch of Life Is Simple in the Moonlight. The lead single, Under Cover of Darkness, sits at track two and remains one of the cleaner distillations of what this band does when everything clicks. The full tracklist gives you a solid spread of the album’s range: tighter, propulsive cuts alongside slower, more layered material like Call Me Back and You’re So Right. Games and Gratisfaction push into slightly different sonic territory, which keeps the sequencing from feeling predictable.

Who Should Pick This Up

If you are building out a complete Strokes discography or filling a gap left by a worn or missing copy, this is a clean, straightforward way to do it. Angles is a record that gets more interesting with repeated listens, particularly if you come to it already familiar with the band’s earlier work. The contrast between what they were doing on Is This It and what they are doing here on tracks like Metabolism and Two Kinds of Happiness says something about how much space a decade of writing can open up in a band’s sound. This CD edition is the most accessible format for that kind of close listening, without the surface noise or pressing variables that come with vinyl. A solid, no-fuss addition to the shelf.

Tracklist

1. MACHU PICHU
2. UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS
3. TWO KINDS OF HAPPINESS
4. YOU'RE SO RIGHT
5. TAKEN FOR A FOOL
6. GAMES
7. CALL ME BACK
8. GRATISFACTION
9. METABOLISM
10. LIFE IS SIMPLE IN THE MOONLIGHT