Originaly released on 30 December 2005 in Germany, then on 2 January, 2006 in the UK and finally on 3 January worldwide "First Impressions Of Earth" was the third studio album by the Strokes, the album spawned three singles "Juicebox", "Heart In A Cage" & "You Only Live Once".
The album was recorded over a ten-month period. The Strokes initially set out to record it with Gordon Raphael, the producer of their first two albums. However, guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. later introduced them to Grammy Award-winning producer David Kahne,
and they brought him in to collaborate with Raphael. The collaboration
did not end up working out, leading Gordon Raphael to step down. As a
result, Kahne produced the majority of the album.
Early this century, The Strokes broke into the worldwide scene giving fresh air to rock music and a new identity, their acclaimed debut album "Is This It" was the big hit back then and nothing would be the same again, things got even bigger with their second and acclaimed album "Room Of Fire" released on 2003, the album sold well thanks in huge part by the success of their singles and cause it sounded like if it was a continuation of their debut albu, so the band was surfing high enough, however they were about to broke that mold themselved had created.
The first thing they did was to work again with Gordon Raphael the mastermind behind their first two albums, also they will used another producer David Kahne to add new things to their brand new combination, but things didn't work between Kahne and Raphael, the first one wanted a rocker raw sound to the band and the second wanted a continuation of the band landmark sound. After four months of experimentation, the band chose to create a sort kind of Frankenstein mixing pop sounds on "You Only Live Once" to power chords on "Heart In A Cage" almost close to hard rock, so by the time when the band released "Juicebox" you can guess to turn they're about to take.
On songs like "Juicebox" and the standout "Electricityscape", drummer
Fab Moretti and bassist Nicolai Fraiture form a no-nonsense rhythm
section that keeps these songs as concise and focused as possible.
Albert Hammond and Nic Valensi, meanwhile, build a complex weapons
system out of just two guitars and
launching short singsongy riffs that add tension and spark, particularly
on tracks like "Heart in a Cage" and "Razorblade".
On First Impressions, the band finally seemed eager to break the
mold, but unsure how: On "Vision of Division" and "The Ize of the
World", Casablanca strains harder, screaming through gritted teeth; "Heart in a
Cage" and "Fear of Sleep" find him leaning too heavily on repetition of
phrases that quickly become grating; during the Pogues-like stomp
"Evening Sun", he fakes a Shane MacGowan accent for the first few lines
before dropping the schtick altogether; and on "Ask Me Anything" and "On
the Other Side", he makes this album the Strokes' loungiest to date.
A handful of these modifications resulted in a welcome as a change of pace, and at times make First Impressions
sounded prickly and confident. When the band was on, the songs attained the
force and fury of previous outings. Unfortunately, the album was also
clogged with a number of tracks that are as sloppy as titles like "The
Ize of the World" and "Vision of Division".
Worldwide the album was a complete failure in their career, nearly reached decent sales, although musically the album meant as a new world that later will explore as a band and in their parallel projects in the years to come. At the time, they weren't confident to move ahead even thought the album was like a huge rehearsal for their future as a band, at least they gave us some of their most finest songs of their discography that will turn into classics.
First Impressions Of Earth Track List:
1. You Only Live Once
2. Juicebox
3. Heart In A Cage
4. Razorblade
5. On The Other Side
6. Vision Of Division
7. Ask Me Anything
8. Electricityscape
9. Killing Lies
10. Fear Of Sleep
11. 15 Minutes
12. Ize Of The World
13. Evening Sun
14. Red Light
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