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The Strokes: Heart in a Cage
Once upon a time, in a scene far, far away, The Strokes produced singles that, whilst being marketed (and in most cases accepted) as the saving grace of rock music and the herald of a new era, held genuinely great pop songs behind the haircuts.
All things taken into account, that probably makes this single the death of rock and the end of an era.
An Iggy Pop 'Passenger' feel runs through the grain of 'Heart in a Cage', a song built around a guitar 'widdle' that proliferates at the end of every verse, acting as something of a chorus for a song that in essence, really doesn't have one. Julian Casablancas' protracted drawl litters each part of this track, with no defined vocal melody or any points that justify this song making it past the rehearsal studio - let alone being released a single.
It's the sort of track that, without any prior knowledge of the band, you'd happily tell yourself "this is alright, but I'll bet it's amazing live". Possibly not the case with The Strokes, but the rhythm section does have a bouncy energy of its own and is the only redeeming feature I could find.
So where now? Certain areas of the press still shoot their load over a Strokes front-cover and the band still sell quite a few albums in this country, but my money is on a real dance music resurgence this year.
Sorry guys, not only did you build the scene, but you're successfully tearing it apart.
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I like thsi song
THIS song.
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this review
reminds me of that bit in Babe where the duck starts screaming "Christmas is murder! Christmas is murder!" For some reason.
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because
you have duck for Christmas in country farms!
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the iggy pop thing...
is quite blatant isn't it?
just that i got in trouble from a friend for saying it sounded like "iggy pop" fronting a track with bits of "muse" guitar wank thrown in...
which i thought was fairly appropriate?
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why is it....
that's its now cool to diss the strokes?
the new album isnt as bad as its made up to be. its not genre spanning, but it still presses the strokes size buttons. and they still kick it live, even though they were better when julian got wasted before every gig.-
its ok
gets 6.5/10 from me
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It's
sure as hell better than most of the stuff on the album.
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jeez!
I'm doing it because it's 'cool', but rather because I don't like it at all.
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!
this song is fucking ace!
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It all boils down to...
loyalty! Can't ever change the football team you support, but you can admit when they're playing poorly. Best of a bad bunch saying that
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Sigh....
Not that Crablin needs people to defend him I'm sure but it really annoys me when people start accusing people of doing things 'cos they're "cool".
The review speaks for itself in terms of reasosn for not liking it so why can people not accept others have a different opinion?
On another note, I also suspect guitar music's resurgence'll die down this year. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing as it's a natural cycle and it won't be the worst thing in the world if indie goes underground for a while so new ideas can develop.
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See,
It's not bad, per se, but it really doesn't stand up to ANYTHING on Is This It for sheer perfect pop thrills. Now that I've had a chance to live with the album for a bit, I really don't like it :-(
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I just don't know why???
they haven't released YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE instead of this as their 2nd single!!! I just don't get it!!!
This should have been maybe the 4th or 5th single!
RAZORBLADE is also catchier than this, IZE OF THE WORLD is also better, but YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE is the poppiest number on First Impressions and it should have been the ideal follow-up to JUICEBOX!
Meanwhile HEART IN A CAGE is a darker version of JUICEBOX and I didn't see it as a single contender when I listened to First Impressions!
Don't get me wrong it's quite good! Just not one of the best moments on their album!
7.5/10
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"the death of rock (in 2006)"
I don't see it happening...
First of all I can see somekind of a "female-fronted bands" movement with bands like BE YOUR OWN PET, GIANT DRAG, HOWLING BELLS, THE LIKE, THE ORGAN, THE LONG BLONDES, THE GO! TEAM, THE SHORTWAVE SET and the return of bands like CONCRETES, YEAH YEAH YEAHS and also CHARLOTTE HATHERLEY all ready to conqour!
On the male side one can't forget the ARCTIC MONKEYS who have sold thousands of albums, the return of MUSE, RADIOHEAD, SNOW PATROL, RCHP... EDITORS are still going strong... Up and coming bands like GOOD SHOES, CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH, THE FEELING and zillions of others... I don't think this year is going to see the death of indie or something like that!
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Maybe not...
...but I remember how quick Britpop collapsed.
It depends what you mean - is indie gonna stop being made or are the mainstream gonna stop noticing it?
Obviously indie stuff is gonna get made but it may not sell/cross over into the public consciousness in the way that, say, the Kaiser Chiefs did last year. Of the bands you mentioned the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charlotte Hatherley and the Concretes have not been that successful in this country while even Muse, whilst enormously popular amongst the alternative crowd, aren't very well-known by the "man in the street", so to speak.
PS The Feeling are surely a mainstream soft-rock act and about as indie as Bon Jovi, oui?
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Sorry guys, not only did you build the scene, but you're successfully tearing it apart.
Well if you made it why not destroy it?
Besides all that rubbish, I think this a good song.
Whether Dance music will be resurging this year. mmm who knows.
There will always be good music round. Always has been always will. Whether anyone we'll be saying thats its the best thing since birth who knows?
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I think...
it sounds like Marilyn Manson without the hilarity. You can make his "dur-nur-nur, dur-nur-nur-nur-nur" guitar noises over the top of it.
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This years 'trend'
Forget your dance and indie
I hold the secret to this years genre success story. Without giving too much away, it's gonna be huge - and it's gonna be handicapped
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sorry, magpie boy run that past me again
'you'? Who's 'you'?
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This
is one of the best songs of a pretty good (if overlong album).
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i really liked
juicebox but wasnt that keen on this one
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'you' as in the strokes
it was a reference to the comment Crablin made in the article. Just using the same term of 'you'
I was basically saying that if anyone should fuck up a scene it's quite fitting if it be those who allegedly created it.
harmless.....
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Fair enough..
but my point is that everyone harks after the strokes of yesteryear when everyone licked their backsides. I think the strokes still have essentially the same formula, the same sound. its just thatt that sound isn't as fashionable as it was....
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It's just...
rubbish. I'm so gutted that I bought the new Strokes album. I was in two minds about it, but I love Juicebox, so I went for it. It's utter shite. I remember 'Heart in a Cage' came on at a party I was at not so long ago... and everyone seemed to love it. But I'm not sure where it gets its mainstream appeal from, it's just dross.
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This track
"juicebox" and "vision of division" were the only tracks on the new album which didn't make my toes curl, but I still appreciate your use of the word "dross" *grin*
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I agree with Ashytron that You Only Live Once should have been the single.
I still think the Strokes album, while not their finest moment, is one of the best albums so far this year. 3 out of 10 seems unnecessarily political for a song that deserves at least 6 stars by your usual rating standards.
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7/10
Tis ok.
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The b-side is a demo of You Only Live Once
It's actually really good as well, a low key affair with just vocals and keyboard. I don't understand why b-sides never get a mention in single reviews on this site, for me the b-sides are one of the main reasons for actually shelling out for a single and it would be useful to know what others thought of them.
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Spot on
Even their first album had flaws.But back then they were flavour of the month.
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strangely I like it
I'm really not a big fan of the strokes, always thought they were a bit overrated, but bizarrely I actually quite like this..... sorry.
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