Angles not the sign of a good reunion

Back in 2001, a strange storm of rock revivalism swept the international music sphere. Before the thundering advancement of Alicia Keys, Eminem and even Crazy Town, this short-lived movement took a stab at injecting some adrenaline into the flaccid veins of rock and roll and saw an alarming advance of “The” bands: The Hives, The White Stripes, The Vines and most sacred of all, The Strokes.

Prophetically dubbed the savior of garage rock before its first album had even been released, The Strokes seemed doomed for an unseemly end. Indeed, despite the layered bento box of crooning self-hatred and popcorn guitar riffs found on Is This It and its worthy followup Room on Fire, the New York City quintet carried the burden of impossibly high expectations, eventually buckling in 2006 with the harebrained First Impressions of Earth.

Met with scathing reviews and nursing already fractured band relations, the boys threw in the towel.

Now, after four rather squeamishly received solo efforts, The Strokes has ill-advisedly reunited for the sake of a fat paycheck and is back on the market with its long-awaited fourth studio album, Angles.

One thing is certain. Front man Julian Casablancas is no longer pulling the strings.

The best thing to be said about the first Strokes record in five years is it has an unexpectedly rich caché of sounds and textures.

“Machu Picchu” begins with a warbling guitar loop somewhere between Modest Mouse and Men at Work.

The snarling, tinny chords of “You’re So Right” filter through one of Kraftwerk’s older synth modules. Even the reverb-coated drums of “Two Kinds of Happiness” recall the same unlikely adaptation of pop aesthetics that Iggy Pop achieved with “Real Wild Child.”

Unfortunately, once Casablancas opens his mouth, the party’s over. The same cigarette-scarred angst is there, but whereas Casablancas seemed to celebrate his own disaffection on previous efforts, here the sky has darkened.

I know, everyone goes any damn place they like, he laments on “Taken For A Fool” adding, I hope this goes over well, on the toxic radio / Yeah.

Consider that final ‘yeah.’ Cynicism has always been the language of The Strokes, but does it stay fresh after more than a decade of existence?

When “The Modern Age” made its radio debut, Casablancas’  emotionally eremitic persona stood as an acknowledgment of those disheartened by the corporate takeover and manufacturing of pop and rock trends.

Yet that’s exactly what has happened to The Strokes — and Casablancas seems all too aware of it, his sardonic side now misanthropic and ugly.

Unsurprisingly, Angles is the sound of five grown men burying their contempt for themselves —and each other — under layers of fuzz and echoes.

The only song here that feels imbued with something more cathartic than cash is “Under Cover of Darkness,” a guitar-centric throwdown that sounds closest to The Strokes’ earlier, more innocent days.

Even Casablancas seems more alive here, intoning It’s a nightmare / So I’m joining the army, and then vulnerably asking, Will you wait for me?

Had more of the album harnessed such gallows joy, Angles would have likely been an acceptable return from a band whose place in music history still seems a mystery.

There’s no doubt The Strokes’ sound was always fun, but now, with a bountiful garden of independent acts incomparable to anything thought possible 10 years ago, do we still need the band?

The Strokes is currently slated to headline this year’s Coachella festival, but when the hour comes for its members’ entrance, the masses might yet be found at Death From Above 1979’s set, or even in the Sahara Tent for Swedish House Mafia’s Axwell.

Sadly, The Strokes seems to have had the right idea when it put its instruments in the closet in 2006. Like any industry dinosaurs, dusted off and carted out for a latter day appearance, Casablancas and Co. will likely make their expected millions from this new effort, play at the expected summer festivals and maybe even snag a Grammy nomination or two.

But it’s unlikely anyone will care, because Angles, simply put, is a serious drag.