Yesterday (January 27th), after speculation that the band would be releasing a new album this year, The Strokes offered up a brand new single titled "One Way Trigger" as a free download from their official website.
For fans expecting a return to the garage rock influenced sound of the band's 2001 album "Is This It", though, the song might come as something of a surprise. The track features falsetto vocals from Julian Casablancas and 1980s inspired synth parts that could have come straight from an Atari 2600 game, at times recalling the A-Ha pop classic "Take On Me".
Fan reaction to the song has been decidedly mixed, with people posting reactions on Twitter that have ranged from outright enjoyment to utter confusion.
While some seem to have enjoyed the band's new direction, there have been other commentators who have noted that Casablancas may have some trouble pulling off the vocals live and that Albert Hammond Jr's trademark guitar playing seems to be completely absent from the track.
But what do you think? Take a listen to the track and let us know in the comments.
Honestly, this song is brilliant. Anybody expecting them to return to Room on Fire didn't take Angles seriously enough. I miss the loud guitars, but this is something I've never heard, and for that, I respect them more.
I'm not a big strokes fan but i'v been following their career since Is this it came out and its true... this song sounds weird, specially the falsetto parts but they are experimenting and that's how you keep a band alive.
P.S. I kinda like the song
I was seriously just going to comment that they sound a little like Radiohead at the beginning. I don't mind the song to be honest. I'm used to falsetto voices and weird experimentation with music.
A change in sound/experimentation is always a good thing IMO. The worst thing a band can do (other than obvious stuff like genocide, rape, being Nickelback etc) is keep the same sound on every release, I call it Cannibal Corpse syndrome.
I'm quite surprised by the falsetto vocals in the song, it's not something Julian usually does. I quite like it and it's definitely a continuation of the direction they've gone in since Angles. A bit concerned by the fact that I must have counted at least 5 people mentioning "tetris" when trying to describe the song on soundcloud...
I like The Strokes's sound, but I hate the lead vocals. Everything about Julian Casablancas kind of unexplicably annoys me. This still sounds like The Strokes though, so I don't understand why it's receiving so much hate.
this song is great! idk a lot of their songs so maybe that's why i just look at the one song without comparing what they usually do but i'm really loving this song
Big shock I admit but I actually like it, the solo at 1:35 ish is a great solo and fits perfectly, the song develops well and is a reasonable extension of angles. Although I would stay away from the falsetto.
