DEEP DISCOG DIVE: The Strokes 

1. The poll for the next DDD is in the description! Go vote if you want a say in who gets covered next time. 2. This one is another redo! The Strokes was the first band I ever covered for the DDD back in early 2019. It’s kinda surreal to see how much the series has changed since then. The old one has been made unlisted, but the link is in the description if you want to watch it. Thanks everyone!

The Strokes are so cool! My favorite stroke is the one Margret Thatcher had

"The two wolves inside of me have moppy hair and denim jackets and they're living their best lives" is a line for the ages

you know i’m something of a DEEP DISCOG DIVE: The Strokes myself

I think Steven Hyden put it best when it comes to the Strokes' "bad" albums: "The fact is that The Strokes have never made a boring record. Even their failures are interesting, and contain at least two or three songs that most rock bands couldn’t touch on their best albums."

Hands down the best thing Julian is involved with is Boombox with the Lonely Island

fun fact: alberts father was also a singer songwritter of his own and had a UK hit single in the 70s that has some resemblance to radiohead’s creep (mostly due to some of the chords), after taking legal action, albert ended up having a writing credit meaning he has a bag on all sales creep makes, making it most likely his biggest hit lol

The chorus on Why Are Sundays So Depressing scratches the right part of my brain every time. The way the lyrics and synths go back and forth is perfect to me.

The Voidz are superb as well. Human Sadness is one of the greatest songs of all time nobody talks about.

i would do anything to hear the recordings they did with nigel godrich

Although they aren’t on the poll a Talking Heads DDD would be great! Their evolution being covered in a video would be sick

Ode to the Mets is one of the best songs ever made, it single-handedly made me a strokes fan, it's such a phenomenal song, just so so beautiful

Julian Casablancas is truly one of the greatest singer/songwriters. Even the ones he doesn't sing himself are incredible, but his work as the lead for The Strokes and The Voidz is incredible.

Scott the woz but for music

The strokes changed my life. They are the soundtrack to my adolescence. Extremely nostalgic.

Red Light is definitely one of the most underrated Strokes songs for me, the guitar work on it is fantastic and boy howdy what a hook.

The New Abnormal is EASILY (IMO of course) their best record since This Is It. Room On Fire is a great album, no dispute, but The New Abnormal showcases a rejuvenated energy from every member in the band with Each Song being great in its own right. So excited to hear what comes next.

Ize of the world on First Impression of Earth is so underrated. Like, the song just ends before the last syllable, implying that maybe they were vaporized before they could finish. The guitar solo and the chord progressions in that song just hook you in and don't let you go.

VERY unpopular oppinion but CDM is my favorite Strokes album. Its both so diverse yet it ties so well together. It has some of the very best vocal and musical performances shown from this album at all imo

The fact that Angles isn’t universally considered the best Strokes album and Comedown Machine still hasn’t been reappraised shows how far we are from realizing a utopian society

I'm pretty disappointed in my younger self for not discovering The Strokes when I was in middle or high school, which matched up with their early albums. They would have been right up my alley. They're still up my alley, but I think I'd like them better if I got into them as a teenager. Oh well. Now do a band I did get into as a teenager: Ween!

I would honestly love a DDD on Foo Fighters. They have some great music and Dave Grohl is just the coolest. Like your favorite uncle that doesn’t always come to gatherings but when he does, you know it’s gonna be a fun time.

Looking at the DDDD poll, I think a dive on Neil Cicierega would be especially interesting because he's one of a few artists whose official discography includes his entire journey through learning to make music, instead of starting at his peak. I find it inspiring to follow that journey. Plus, way too many joke opportunities.

I'm 27 years old and proudly a Strokes listener for 18 years now and fan for at least 16. They're just something else.

important events to happen on October 28, 2003: 1. I was born 2 Room on Fire by the Strokes was released 3. I was born

I've always had a soft spot for On The Other Side, I won't lie. Lyrically, it's Julian at his most blunt and vulnerable. The way the chorus evolves from 'nobody's waiting for me' to 'I know you're waiting for me' feels like him coming to terms with a difficult change in his life, or maybe forgiving his problematic father. One of my favourite songs on this album for sure.

so happy to see modern girls + old fashion men here, and comedown machine getting the praise it deserves makes me think there is still good left on this earth. there's some home demos out there on youtube if anyone wants an even more lofi sound from the strokes

Ize of the world is a fantastic song. I admit that albums the most chaotic sounding but it grew on me and Ize had always been a stand out for me. The solo is great.

The Strokes are the one that got away of bands for me, was never actually a fan of them, but hearing their songs on MTV back when I had no knowledge of rock as a music genre definitely changed my brain chemistry

GRATISFACTION IS INCREDIBLE. In total agreement with you about it being the most underrated strokes song ever and the best track on angles.

I saw The Strokes at Primavera Sound, weekend 2, 3rd time seeing them, during Under Cover Of Darkness i just started crying hysterically, a friend i was with hugged me and she kept asking me “what’s wrong boo?” And i just said “Nothing i just love them so muchhhh 😭😭😭😭😭” that sums up my feelings for this band 🤍

Wasn’t expecting another dive so soon! This is a band I’ve always been wanting to get into but kept putting off for some reason, now I think I’m finally gonna give them a listen. Also I’d love to see a DDD on R.E.M. at some point!

there is a feral creature that rattles around in its cage inside my brain when the strokes is brought up and the only way to make it stop gnawing at the fleshy walls of my head is to hear genuine and deserved praise about REPTILIA which i, too, first heard from the guitar hero game, hatching the horrible creature fed by the bassline of that song.

Vision Of Division was probably one of the first Strokes songs I ever heard, only after Last Nite. I love it because it's definitely their heaviest song and Fab's drum part is insane.

damn, very cool of you to cover the more obscure little side project of beloved voidz frontman julian casablancas, once again helping out the underdog 👍 god bless (btw, if you ever feel like doing another really big episode like the bowie video, may i suggest paul mccartney? that's a hell of a discography to dig into, you even get to do a fun little wings detour in the 70's)

Hawaii is one of my fav strokes b-side. It’s so different from their other stuff and it’s always amazing to hear Julian’s falsetto

It’s funny that you don’t recommend First Impressions as the first album to listen because it was exactly how I got to know The Strokes. I saw “You Only Live Once” music video on MTV and loved it, so I looked up for the album and I know many fans and even critics don’t like it, but it holds a special place in my heart for introducing me to the band. “Heart in a Cage” used to be on constant repeat on my MP3 player hahaha. Amazing video as always! (Sorry for any mistakes, Brazilian here haha)

Since you brought up Queens of the Stone Age I would LOVE a DDD on them. Hope they'll be on the poll soon!

17:39 Albert’s solo work is actually how I found the Strokes. I found Albert’s stuff through playing Forza Horizon 3, which featured 2 of Albert’s songs from his album “Momentary Masters,” those being “Losing Touch” and “Caught by My Shadow.” I didn’t find the Strokes for another 7 months, and when I did the first song I listened to was Reptilia. Side Note: Please go check out Albert’s solo albums, especially his album “Francis Trouble.”

At the door might be my favorite strokes song, I have listened to it probably hundreds of times and the chorus gives me goosebumps every time without fail

YEAAAAAA I was hoping this one got remade after binging the series twice!!! So hype to watch this. side note: for a new artist to cover, I'd say twenty one pilots would be great! For another redo sometime down the line, maybe Oasis?

This guy gets it. I have no idea why people so many people say comedown machine is their worst album. I think it's their best personally.

"why is this their best album since room on fire" YES!!! YEEEES!!! YOU GET IT MIC! justice for comedown machine!

The strokes provided the soundtrack to the best parts of the worst parts of my life. Specifically "Is This It", "Room On Fire", and "Comedown Machine"

The New Abnormal is what got me into the Strokes, I listened to the closer so many times

Reptilia is just so good. I can't help but air guitar it everytime I hear it. One of my favourite songs to get stuck in my head

On the Otherside is in my top 3 favorite Stroke songs of all time and my favorite off of First Impressions. Let me tell you why. I stumbled across this song about a month after my father died. Before his death, I had a lot of anger towards him because he wasn’t in my life after 13 and I thought to myself “why should I give a fuck about that man who wasn’t there for me?” I felt nothing but anger being at his side in the hospital and left back to my hometown before he passed. Then he passed and it’s so fucking true what people say. You never know what you have until you lose it. Until it’s gone forever and you realize you’re never hearing that persons voice again. My dad wasn’t perfect by any means, but in my early years he gave me a wonderful childhood, he was present, involved, and a loving father. Yeah it might not have been a perfect life but it was still worth living. The older I get I realize how flawed humans are and everyone is still trying to figure things out even at an old age. I think how possible it is for me to fuck up just as bad as my father did even while striving to be better. I thought “What if I don’t do better? What if with the same circumstances he had, I would have done the same?” Maybe I just didn’t wanna hate him anymore because I missed him so much. Then I heard “On the Otherside” and I balled my eyes out. I see this song through the eyes of my father The verses make me picture my dad absolutely done with life. He couldn’t talk while I was there, but I assumed who he was as a person is still in there. I feel there are regrets he had and there are people he wished he wouldn’t hate but can’t and that in and of itself makes him hate himself more and want to die. The Bridge is the only part I view through my eyes. One of my favorite memories is my dad doing what the lyrics say and teaching me how to sing on my grandfathers kareoke speaker when I was around 5 or 6. And then there’s the fucking chorus Again through the eyes of my father, I sing these lyrics picturing I am him on the hospital bed. I imagine he’s scared and knows what’s coming next. It’s his final chapter on Earth coming to a close and going to the “Otherside”, and maybe he knew how I felt towards him at the hospital. Maybe that’s how he thought everyone felt towards him. He felt he knew what waited for him on the “Otherside”. He felt he would be forgotten. He felt unloved. He felt his sins had caught up and because he wasn’t perfect he deserved the fate he got. I feel so bad I didn’t comfort him in his final days. I feel so bad I waited for him to die to miss him and remember the good times. I feel so bad imagining what he felt there as he waited for what’s to come on the Otherside.

I saw The Strokes, live, in person, for the first time ever at a music festival recently, and seeing Reptilia live brought me the most joy I’ve felt in five years. It was unreal what it did to me.

I saw the Strokes play Arlene's Grocery in NYC back in '98. I still have their demo CD, which I bought directly from Hammond for like, 5 bucks.

6:38 THANK YOU! SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT. just because When It Started replaced a fan favorite NYC Cops the song gets so much shit. literally nothing wrong with the song. it's great along with the rest of the album

Honestly a deep discog dive on ELO/Electric Light Orchestra would be really cool. The history of it is pretty cool but mainly I’d wanna see it cuz there really is a lot more great music by them beyond Mr Blue Sky.

also I remember brooklyn bridge to chorus playing right before a Billie Eilish concert I went to in February, and everyone started to do the wave BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE

I understand the hatred for On The Other Side, but I like it. If you can learn to love Under Control, I think you can learn to love it too

i kinda love the strained vox on FIOE but that may just be nostalgia from being an angsty teen screaming "How long must I wait?" that Vision of Division live at T in the park video is legendary though

15:34 How could you not like Killing Lies?! I didn't think much about it but after relistening to it it is one of the songs that hasn't aged too badly and could easily fit on The New Abnormal today

The Strokes for me are the band that defines the Millennial generation. They were the first band I felt like belonged to me and not older generations. "At the Door" is one of my all-time favorites.

Wasn't huge on Heart In a Cage until I heard them live and they opened with it, and it completely shredded my mind

I legitimately screamed when he called Comedown Machine their best since room on fire!! It's my second favourite album from them, and I listened to it a lot during a period of intense burnout where I found it difficult to enjoy pretty much anything and felt exhausted all the time. I really love the jaded, tired feel of the album, it felt like the album occupied the exact same mental space as me. When I looked up the background of the album, how they put no effort into promoting it, combined with the minimal album cover, it really added to the whole burnout vibe of the album. It really doesn't get the love it deserves.

'I'll Try Anything Once' has completely different lyrics than YOLO but I recommend checking out The Strokes BBC live version of YOLO where they combine both of those songs

it’s a shame you don’t comment on the side projects other than julians albums because albert stuff is some SERIOUS early strokes fix for anyone that wants that sound back now that strokes got more 80s synth oriented

I tried listening to the strokes music earlier and I thought it was ok. This video got me to listen to their entire discography and now I am in love with the band. (and I feel like a sick bastard too for loving comedown machine)

Funny enough, FIOE was the first Strokes album I've ever heard and it made me fall in love with them

Glad to see Angles and Comedown Machine get some praise here. I remember the responses to those records being somewhat muted.

This is such a fucking great video. The production is so tight and your narration is incredibly engaging. And none of the bullshit ‘like and subscribe’ nonsense

Mic is at it again. Once again refuseing to do a DDD on The Killers, but insted does them on some of my other favorites. At this stage I can only asume its personal.

Haven't really thought too deeply about the Strokes before, but now realizing how much the 1975 took from them. I think July will be an Is This It month. Great exploration as always! Thoroughly enjoyed :)

i LOVE LOVE LOVE comedown machine so much. it’s next to, not second to, is this it for me. julian’s falsettos and writing on it are so.. . sweet? the title track, chances, and call it fate are just so good. i love

First Impressions is my fav strokes album. Can't believe you wrote, recorded, edited, and posted this review in sick-bastard-mode

Great video as usual! I would love a Red Hot Chili Peppers DDD, they’ve got an extensive discography and have had a lot of interesting history within the band. I think it would make for a great episode, keep up the good work!

One of my favorite bands of all time.

So glad that you are a "Gratisfaction" fan. That has ALWAYS been one of my very favorite Strokes tracks. And if that wasn't enough, I found another fan of "Comedown Machine" GOODNESS let's go!!!!

Really cool to see how passionate and articulate this guy is.

FINALLY SOMEONE ON RU-vid WHO LOVES COMEDOWN MACHINE

My personal favorite album of the strokes and maybe one of my favorite albums of all time is first impressions of earth. I shed tears every single time I hear someone dog on that album.

I've felt so alone loving Comedown Machine as much as I do. Thank you for validating my opinion of the album and showing me that I'm not the only one with bad music taste

Chances is absolutely gorgeous, one of my favorite Strokes tracks

I heard machu pichu 10000 times while playing fifa 12 and never got sick of it

"what songs are in e flat minor?" down with the sickness, mic. down with the sickness is in e flat minor

It seems a common thing to get into Strokes later, not while they were just there when one was coming-of-age and sort of following 'what's good'. Anyway, I think you very well captured much of why we love them. P.S. ''Meet me in the bathroom'' book was good and made me appreciate their influence in a new way.

Though calling us strokes fans Strokers would be accurate, I prefer the term "Strokes Folk"

Hearing high praise for Is This It always makes me so happy for some reason

I won't argue with anyone that it is their best album but for sure that First Impressions Of Earth is my favourite album of theirs. It is the first album I've heard and most of its songs have stuck with me unlike some on their other albums. Besides that I love them as a band and Julian especially ❤️

Just went to see The Strokes in Stockholm. The gig made me fall in love with Juicebox as well, didnt like it before. Your so cold gives me chills everytime. Julians improvisation at the end of most ”The Adults Are Talking” live versions is always immaculate as well. Thank you for this video.

Feel bad for you bro, The Strokes made weekend 2 of Primavera Sound, they were sick. Julian couldn't stop talking though so they cut two songs from the setlist tho lol

seeing the strokes in august. julian's voice has grown so much throughout the years.

*talks about the new abnormal Me: :) …doesn’t talk about selfless Me: :(

So glad this one got remade! Especially love to hear another fan of comedown machine talk about it (and 50/50 + all the time are also the only songs I don't care for on it). Nobody tell mr. snare, but as a newer strokes fan who REALLY likes synths it even surpasses their debut for me.

I fucking love the grit of first impressions, to me it sounds like good grain on a photograph, it just gives it the texture it needs for it to comunicate the sound according to the feelings they wanted to evoke. It could have been cleaner or lighter but it's an artistic choice in the end and Im all for it, on most genres.

Awesome video!! Been waiting for this one forever!

I legit want you to do so many of the bands in the poll in a DDD keep this series up please

Seeing them live today, this is great for a warm up :)

Great videos! Insightful and entertaining. You make discovering bands fun again.

I only recently discovered The Strokes and This Is It. The entire album is like perfect. So chill with memorable verses.

i LOVED this video!! the fact that our opinions on songs and albums by the strokes are so different just shows how great it is haha, thank u for this!!

grew up listening to these guys! love them so much

Could not tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this video I know you uploaded a previous one but I’m still so excited

Thanks for doing this. I love the Strokes. Such easy charm

I saw the Strokes open for RHCP a few days ago, and while I always enjoyed their music and connected deeply with Reptilia, I never realized how amazing of a band they are until I saw them live. Their atmosphere is incredible, and Julian’s voice still sounds as good as it did in 2002. Masterful. (Chilis slay tho)

Thanks for the constant content love to see it I’m very glad to have found your channel it honestly has put me onto some very interesting music and you’ve got some takes that I don’t agree with but I enjoy that that’s what I come here

Finally, I’ve been waiting for you to do the Strokes