The Strokes - "Future Present Past EP"

What a time to be alive, I mean out of nowhere this year we've gotten a new Radiohead album that's become an instant classic, and out of nowhere now we new Strokes material.  Now the last few years have been not the best for New York's The Strokes.  I mean these guys had one of the most legendary starts to a career ever, with "Is This It" and "Room On Fire" being modern classics.  The band's follow up records though have been a little more mixed though, with "First Impressions of Earth" and "Angles " being more experimental and artsy, and "Comedown Machine" was blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand.  Which brings us to this new 4 track collection, "Future Present Past EP".

I'm gonna make this as short and sweet as I can, and I'll try to make this painless......it's gonna be tough though.  This EP starts off with "Drag Queen".  The Strokes obviously in the past few years have gotten more and more New Wave sounding.  "Drag Queen" is no different,  sounding more robotic than ever.  Now going into this, Julian Casablancas stated that this EP was like a "time machine", and it sure is, but man this sounds like a truly awful New Order song.  Now vocal effects I'm totally fine with, but Julian here sounds like he recorded his vocals underwater I swear. The guitar solo here just sounds so reserved, Nick Valensi literally sounds like he's holding back.  Not to mention this production is absolutely atrocious, it doesn't even come off as "edgy production", it's just depressing.  This is what The Strokes have come to apparently, it's just so damn mediocre.  Oh wow and I haven't even gotten to Julian's vocals in the last minute, which may just be the most obnoxious vocals I've heard all year.  Up next is "Oblivius", which at the very least has a little bite in the guitar.  The production though is just so weak though.  The vocal effects here on Julian sound like they're trying to make him sound like he did back in 2001 (And guess what, it fails miserably).  Half the track is so muffled I can't make out a single word, but at the very least I have to say I enjoy the chorus for what it is.  I wish I could enjoy this, I wish I could be excited for future Strokes material.  But I seriously can't get past that production, this is all so muddy.  "Oblivius" is easily the most depressing track here, because honestly it's a solid song, but it was just so poorly produced that it's terrible.  And once again, the last 40 seconds are seriously excruciating, Julian once again sounds so obnoxious.  What the hell were they even thinking releasing this?  On "Threat Of Joy", at the very least Julian drops the vocal effects, and as far as his performance goes it is a bit better.  "Threat Of Joy" isn't absolutely awful, but they're just trying so hard to nail this old school post-punk sound.  Some moments of these songs are alright at the very best, but they're layered in so many gimmicks and effects that all the magic quite simply wears off.  Oh boy, and then we have the highly unnecessary "Oblivius (Moretti Remix)", which honestly I don't even want to think about.  Literally, take everything about "Oblivius" that was "OK", give it a spacey groove, water everything down even more and there you go.  Dreadfull.


Rating: 5.5/10 (And that's being generous)


Give A Listen To: Man I've got nothing on this one.


Overall Thoughts:  No.