| The New Abnormal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover art featuringBird on Money (1981) byJean-Michel Basquiat. | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 10, 2020 (2020-04-10) | |||
| Recorded | August 2013 - January 2020 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 45:07 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Rick Rubin | |||
| The Strokes chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from The New Abnormal | ||||
| ||||
The New Abnormal is the sixth studio album by Americanrock bandthe Strokes, released on April 10, 2020, throughCult andRCA Records.[1] It was their first full-length album sinceComedown Machine (2013), marking the longest gap between studio albums by the band. The album was produced byRick Rubin and recorded at hisShangri-La studio inMalibu, California, with additional recording taking place at studios inLos Angeles County andHawaii. The Strokes began performing songs from the album for the first time throughout 2019 before revealing the album's track list and cover art in early 2020. "At the Door", "Bad Decisions", and "Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus" were released as singles prior to the album's release, with "The Adults Are Talking" being released to radio months later.
The New Abnormal received highly positive reviews from critics, many of whom considered the album a return to form for the band. Praise was directed particularly towards the maturity of singerJulian Casablancas' lyrics, as well as the band's improved sense of musical cohesion. The album reached No. 1 in Scotland and the top ten in six other countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. It won theGrammy Award forBest Rock Album at the63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021, the band's first nomination and win.
Writing sessions forThe New Abnormal dated as far back as 2016, following the release of the band'sFuture Present Past extended play from the same year. GuitaristNick Valensi had toldDIY that they were "slowly but surely" making progress on the album.[2] The following year,Albert Hammond, father of guitaristAlbert Hammond Jr., toldThe West Australian that the Strokes were working withRick Rubin on an upcoming album.[3] Hammond Jr. responded to this viaTwitter, stating that they were only presenting musical ideas to him and were not in any recording sessions.[4] The band would eventually begin recording sessions with Rubin at hisShangri-La studio inMalibu, California. Additional recording took place atStudio City Sound, Lucy's Meat Market,Groove Masters, and Joel and Zach's Studio, all inLos Angeles County, as well as Mauka View inPrinceville, Hawaii.[5]
On May 13, 2019, the band performed live for the first time in two years at theWiltern Theatre inLos Angeles, premiering a new song entitled "The Adults Are Talking".[6] The show was the first of what was dubbed a "global comeback tour".[7] Early shows were plagued by technical difficulties ranging from sound issues[8] to rain-outs[9] to cancellations of entire festivals, partly due to COVID-19.[10]
Music critics have generally consideredThe New Abnormal to be anindie rock album.[11][12][13] Matty Pywell ofGigwise wrote that it blended indie rock and "new wave mixed withelectronica".[13] Writing forNewsweek, James Crowley wrote that the album sonically leans more towards the "disco-tingedpost-punk than thegarage rock they made their name with,"[14] whileKitty Empire ofThe Observer labeled it as "all-out pop".[15] Writers have also considered the album as having elements of1980spop music,[16][12]glam rock,[11] anddream pop.[11] The album houses the same style of dueling guitar riffs heard on the Strokes' previous albums.[17] Harrison Screen ofVinyl Chapters found that it also carries on the tradition of the band blending "a vintage feel into modern-day," adding that "these songs are straight from the seventies."[18] Reviewers found that the second half of the album has a much slower pace and is more dedicated toballads.[17][16] The album also includes a series of outtakes of studio chatter interspersed throughout the album.[15] Many lyrics on the album are thought to refer to Casablancas' divorce from his wife Juliet Joslin.[19]
Two songs on the album incorporate vocal melodies from other songs, both of which include songwriting credits for the original performers.[5] The chorus of "Bad Decisions" uses the vocal melody from the chorus of "Dancing with Myself" (1980) byGeneration X,[11][20] and some of "Eternal Summer" uses the vocal melody from the chorus of "The Ghost in You" (1984) bythe Psychedelic Furs.[21]
The cover art forThe New Abnormal features the 1981 paintingBird on Money by American artistJean-Michel Basquiat.[22] The album's title was inspired by a quote made by former California governorJerry Brown in November 2018 in the midst of theCalifornia wildfires.[23] Brown had responded to the emergency events being labeled "the new normal" by instead calling them "the new abnormal".[24] The wildfires had especially impacted Malibu, the location of Rubin's Shangri-La studio at which the band were recording the album, though the studio itself was left unharmed. This chain of events influenced the band to use the quote as the title for their album.[23] Despite the album title having been revealed in February 2020 and instead referencing Brown's quote,New York Times writerJon Pareles noted in his review of the album that the title was a fitting description for public life during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[25] Strokes singerJulian Casablancas also noted during the pandemic that the title "feels so prescient because of the parallel between something like coronavirus".[23]
To compensate for the cancellation of their performance at theGovernors Ball Music Festival on June 2, 2019, the band played a specialNew Year's Eve show atBarclays Center inBrooklyn withMac DeMarco,Kirin J Callinan andHinds.[26] During the show, Casablancas announced the release of a new album, stating, "Yeah, we've got a new album coming out soon ... The 2010s, whatever the fuck they're called, we took 'em off. And now we've been unfrozen and we're back." The band also premiered another new song entitled "Ode to the Mets".[27] Other notable performances included a rally forBernie Sanders inDurham, New Hampshire on February 10, 2020, alongsideAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez,Sunflower Bean,Cynthia Nixon, andCornel West.[28] There, Casablancas confirmed that the new album, titledThe New Abnormal, would be released on April 10, while the band debuted one new song, "Bad Decisions", and screened a music video for another, "At the Door".[28]
To further promote the record, the band released a series of self-produced videos titled and stylized as "5guys talking about things they know nothing about."[29] The band explained that "...we wanted to see if we could connect with folks, and turned what was supposed to be a pirate radio thing for our album release (which we would make in-person) into a video chat instead..."[30] The first episode premiered on April 8, 2020, and in the following episode, released April 9, 2020, the band previewed the entire record.
The Strokes performed "The Adults Are Talking" and "Bad Decisions" during the October 31, 2020, episode ofSaturday Night Live's46th season.[31] "The Adults Are Talking" was released as a radio play single, impactingalternative radio stations, on November 3, 2020.[32]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.1/10[33] |
| Metacritic | 75/100[34] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [35] |
| The Daily Telegraph |  [36] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A−[37] |
| Exclaim! | 6/10[38] |
| The Guardian | [39] |
| The Independent | [40] |
| NME | [41] |
| Pitchfork | 5.7/10[42] |
| Rolling Stone | [43] |
| The Times | [44] |
AtMetacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a weighted average score of 75, based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[34] Most critics praised the mature lyrics and highlighted the members' return to form after a period of tension and apathy from within the group.[45]
Will Hodgkinson ofThe Times awarded the album five out of five stars, labeling it their "second masterpiece", followingIs This It (2001). He praised Rick Rubin's production as well as the album's overall sound, saying that "the Strokes sound like a band again."[44]Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A−, acknowledging that "twenty years on from the band's first flush of stardom,Abnormal offers something better than reckless youth: rock stars finally old enough to miss those good old days—and wise enough now, too, to give us the soundtrack these strange new times deserve."[37]NME awarded the album four stars, with Ella Kemp remarking, "The Strokes have always kept their feelings at arm's length, but there are traces of deeper introspection on their sixth album, which—despite itself—is something of a crowd-pleaser."[41]
In the review forAllMusic, Heather Phares praised the album, calling it "[f]ull of passion, commitment, and creativity" and proclaiming that "The New Abnormal marks the first time in a while that the Strokes have made truly exciting music."[35] Giving the verdict forConsequence of Sound, Tyler Clark stated that "Even with its inevitable blemishes, The New Abnormal is easily the freshest, most interesting album that The Strokes have released in more than a decade. While the band haven't proven to be the single-handed savior that rock music always seems to be searching for, they have made the case for taking a slow-burn approach to collaboration and creativity. In that respect, this album might just be the first step along a new, more invigorated path."[46] Rachel Aroesti also provided a positive assessment in the review forthe Guardian, writing that "when they put their minds to it, that old magic is still well within the Strokes's grasp."[39]
Some reviewers were more critical in their judgement of the album. In the review forPitchfork, Sam Sodomsky mentioned that "the Strokes' sixth album and first in seven years, mostly just feels like a hangover. It's sluggish and slight, and the strongest hooks are so familiar that they require additional writing credits for the '80s hits they copy note-for-note".[42]Neil McCormick ofThe Daily Telegraph gave the album three stars out of five, criticizing its "cheesy Eighties synths and dinky disco beats" as well as Julian Casablancas' lyrics, but praised its instrumentation and Casablancas's vocals, as well as Rick Rubin's production for making The Strokes sound "pretty damn fantastic again."[36] Reviewing the album forExclaim!, Kaelen Bell had mixed feelings, saying that it is "not a bad record, but it is a frustrating one, made by a band that feels pulled in a dozen different directions."[38]Kitty Empire ofthe Observer also regarded the album as a "frustrating listen despite its gleam", adding that "faster tempos would have helped."[15]
On the USBillboard 200,The New Abnormal debuted at number 8 with 35,000equivalent album units. Of that sum, 23,000 were in album sales, 11,000 inSEA units and less than 1,000 in TEA units.[47] The album reached number 1 on theTop Album Sales chart, making it the highest-selling album in terms of pure sales for that week.[48]
| Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| AllMusic | AllMusic Best of 2020 | N/A | |
| Billboard | 50 Best Albums of 2020 – Mid-Year | N/A | |
| Los Angeles Times | The 10 Best Albums of 2020 | 8 | |
| NME | The 50 Best Albums of 2020 | 4 | |
| Paste | 25 Best Albums of 2020 – Mid-Year | 25 | |
| Uproxx | The Best Albums Of 2020 | 50 |
| Year | Ceremony | Nominated work | Recipient(s) | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Grammy Awards[55] | The New Abnormal | The Strokes | Best Rock Album | Won |
All lyrics are written byJulian Casablancas; all music is composed by the Strokes, except where noted.[5]
| No. | Title | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Adults Are Talking" | 5:09 | |
| 2. | "Selfless" | 3:42 | |
| 3. | "Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus" | 3:55 | |
| 4. | "Bad Decisions" |
| 4:53 |
| 5. | "Eternal Summer" | 6:15 | |
| 6. | "At the Door" |
| 5:10 |
| 7. | "Why Are Sundays So Depressing" | 4:35 | |
| 8. | "Not the Same Anymore" | 5:37 | |
| 9. | "Ode to the Mets" | 5:51 | |
| Total length: | 45:07 | ||
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[5]
The Strokes
Artwork
| Technical personnel
|
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| France (SNEP)[82] | Gold | 50,000‡ |
| Mexico (AMPROFON)[83] | Platinum+Gold | 90,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[84] | Gold | 7,500‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[85] | Silver | 60,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)[It] sounds like a keyboard that, you know,Nick is playing, but it's actually a guitar. One of those . . . digital guitars.
