Gogglebox #10: Watch The Strokes 'Under Cover Of Darkness'
By: Mike Harounoff
There's no point in me trying to get into the ins and outs of the video before we address the main thing here - the song. Some people were always going to say it 'just wasn't the same, man', whereas others could have been played literally anything and would have declared it 'a return to form' and 'better than anything off the third record'. Whilst it is and will forever be a slightly encouraging thing to look around the vast majority of your peers and know there's one band you can all agree on, it doesn't half make everyone get a bit excited knowing that when they utter their opinion on the matter, people will listen. So here's my opinion. Please listten.
It's probably as good as it ever could have been considering what I imagine to be the circumstances. Yes, the first time you hear it the whole thing's a bit disappointing, but as you should with EVERYTHING, give it a few listens. Ultimately still, it's entirely up to the listener how much they decide to like of The Strokes music from here on in.
But as for the video, it looks pretty great - everyone looks cool, which is still the second most important thing about The Strokes. How redundant would they be if they looked like shit? To be fair, i'm sure some will look on and decide the Nick one has grown his hair too long and the Albert one is getting a bit thin on top, but what this video does welll is to play up to how people perceive the Julian one as being as being a bit up his own arse. It's kind of exciting when you watch the first two minutes and he's not in the same room as any of his band mates - "woah, he hates them all so much he won't even do the video on the same day as them, man!', you're prompted to think. But of course Julian inevitably joins his fellow Strokes, only to find out that they don't rock out like they used to because they've all grown up now. And then the video ends.
I liked it, man.
Artists in this article: The Strokes