The Strokes' Room on Fire Turns 20
Two decades later and the sophomore record could be better than their debut
By now, the story of The Strokes instant classic debut album Is This It feels like rock and roll lore that comes straight from a movie rather than real life. As it goes, they were a bunch of New York City rich kids who had an incredible knack for style and songwriting who came together through years of adolescent friendship to start a band, make some killer rock and roll tunes, and start a bidding war among labels. They helped launch and revitalize the downtown New York music scene and reclaim the city as a place of true rock and roll, sparking something people hadn’t seen since grunge became synonymous with Seattle in the early ‘90s. When the album finally came out, it not only lived up to the hype, but somehow put rock music back in the spotlight and while it never reached the heights of TRL dominated nu-rock and pop music of the early 2000s, it came closer than anyone could have imagined.
When it came time for The Strokes’ second album, the anticipation felt impossible to conquer and when they released Room on Fire, twenty years ago today, the response set the course of trajectory for the rest of the band’s career. Upon immediate release, the reception seemed to be that The Strokes had released a near carbon copy of their debut and as much as everyone had appeared to fall head over heels for this sound back in 2001, by 2003 it had somehow become stale.
That’s not to say no one cared. By looking at magazine racks, it was quite clear that covers were dominated by the the bands of the era (Strokes, White Stripes, Vines, Hives, you get it). Shaggy hair, skinny jeans, blazers, and anything that would later be sold by Urban Outfitters was the look and as we hit the mid-aughts, the hipster era was upon us in full swing and it was largely led by The Strokes. In so many ways, the look was almost as talked about as the music itself and fashion was once again being associated with music for the first time since flannel and grunge became one in the same.
Looking back two decades later, it’s hard to remember why, exactly, the band wasn’t met with the same acclaim the second time around. The tracklist is all hits with very little (if any) filler and the songs, in many ways, sounded bigger than anything on the debut. But by 2003, The Strokes weren’t the novel band they had been only a few years later. In the wake of Is This It, the number of bands who were billed as the fill in the blank version of The Strokes was abundant. The Libertines were England’s answer, Kings of Leon were The Strokes of the south, The Mooney Suzuki were fellow New Yorkers who never got their due, but came pretty close, and countless others tried their best to imitate Lou Reed and the aesthetics of CBGBs and repackage it for the new millennium. Soon it seemed like everyone was trying to capitalize on the rock and roll revival. When Room on Fire hit stores, The Strokes were no longer the new sensation and somehow seemed just like so many other bands who were attempting to capitalize on the moment. A few years prior, they were the coolest guys on the planet and while their eternal style didn’t waiver, the pressure was really on to deliver.
In addition to the hype around whether or not they could recapture the magic that seemed to come so naturally was the fact that they had originally tapped one Nigel Godrich to produce the record. Of course this was during Radiohead’s imperial era and the idea that the next future-kings of rock could be adopting the powers of the current greatest band on the planet pushed the hype to new levels, so when they announced that things hadn’t worked out with Nigel and they reverted back to the producer from their first record, Gordon Raphael, things began to feel slightly amiss.
Still, the album dropped and the songs delivered. Led by “12:51,” a New Wave inspired track, it was an early sign that while the band was still embracing the legacy of their hometown, they’d moved on from proto-punk grit to a sheener, glossier take that still seemed as cool as ever. The songs on the album carried the same traits as their predecessor, but had a bit more reservations in some areas. If Is This It was the album to kick off a party, Room on Fire felt more like the comedown for very late nights or early mornings.
Still, this is a rock record and at this point in time, the band still knew how to write a hook that could set a soul on fire. “Reptilia,” the second single and song on the album still stands as one of their best and electrifies the second the drum flam hits and the bass line permeates the speaker. When the guitar riff hits, the song flies off the rails in the best way possible. Even years later, the energy the song creates is unparalleled. I can recall being fortunate enough to be standing on stage with the band just a year ago as they headlined Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Spain and to witness the response of the crowd when the band tore into the track was one of the most life-affirming moments I have ever experienced and made me question how anyone could give up that feeling of absolute power and rock stardom. For a band that has so publicly seemed to not give a fuck, it was lost on me how anyone could turn off that feeling and lose the rush of a crowd of 50,000+ collectively losing their minds while you and your bandmates are at the helm of the action.
For all the sleepier moments, “You Talk Way Too Much” and the disco-vibes of the underrated “Under Control,” which seemed to bog down some critics, there are still the high caliber moments that could light up a crowd or have a bar erupt in air guitar moments. It’s also the album that features the song “Meet Me In The Bathroom” which would lend its name to Lizzy Goodman’s book that recounted first-hand tellings from various artists of the era and would in turn become a phrase to describe the scene and time period in general.
The tragedy that would befall the Strokes in the years to come can all be linked back to Room on Fire. After being faulted for making a record that sounded much too similar to their debut, the rest of the Strokes discography would be faulted for sounding too different with fans, but mostly critics, wishing for a return to form. In retrospect, Room on Fire is a better album than most give it credit for and in so many ways, it should be regarded in the same light as their monumental debut. Of course matching the magic of Is This It still feels like a lightning in a bottle type moment, but twenty years on, the hits on the band’s sophomore record connect with the same intensity and when they appear on the band’s setlist, the response from the crowd is as electrifying as anything from their first album.
Years later, Pitchfork Media would later revise their original score of the album and upgrade it from an 8.0 to a 9.2 (a whole decimal higher than Is This It in fact). A major step in recognizing the impact and influence of the album over time, but also perhaps a comment on the path the band would follow in the records that came next. Under-appreciated at the time, the album is now viewed almost in parallel with the band’s debut, giving them two near-perfect albums and while they’ve still yet to reach these heights in subsequent releases, the band has accepted their fate and still rely largely on these albums for their live shows and no one will complain about that fact.
When it comes to sophomore records, few can compare to the legacy, discourse, and overall impact that came with Room on Fire and for The Strokes, as classic as their debut has become, it’s this one that really cemented their legacy and everything that would follow. There are some moments when I listen back and think to myself, maybe this is their best album before I quickly revert back to an Is This It-loyalist, but the fact that I question just goes to show that maybe they did do the impossible. Maybe they did have lightning strike twice. The fact that two decades later this is even up for debate after all the critical acclaim for their debut proves how much they mattered at the time and how much they still matter today. Their end really has no end indeed.