(Cult Records/RCA) The irascible rockers present a united front again to focus on taut, driven songs with catchy riffs
The Strokes are back, and this time nobody likes them. At least, that’s the impression frontman Julian Casablancas seems keen to impart on the band’s sixth album. “All my friends left, and they don’t miss me,” he moans, like Toby Young for the ageing-hipsters-with-directional-mullets crowd. Elsewhere he’s an “ugly boy”, a bad decision maker who wants “new friends, but they don’t want me / They’re making plans while I watch TV.”