The Stokes’ Falling Out Of Love: To Quote a Great Man, “What are we Doing?”

When I think of the NY based band The Strokes I think of stripped back rock…Last Nite…or experimental lo-fi…Selfless…but not Falling Out of Love. This is the first single from the band in close to 7 years…and they may have needed some more time. Spoiler alert…this review is going to be a bumpy ride.

Let’s start with the music. We have some classic rock ballad strumming with some snappy drums. Ok, all good so far. And that’s about it. The track really never progresses. The hooks are largely a slightly amped up version of what you hear during the verses. There is a slight build to some “under the sea” sounding guitar and keyboard, but that is too little a payoff to really register. The Strokes previous work at least had an arrangement that built towards something. You felt like you were on a journey and the track was progressing…but none of that here. It is just…..boring. Musically, you are left with a paint by numbers arrangement that feels like it was composed by Chat GPT. Type “rock ballad” into the chat bot and press enter. But the music is not the most disappointing part of this track, and that’s saying something.

This is one of the most self-serious, self-indulgent, emotionally dead vocals I have ever heard. This makes the ABBA comeback sound like an operatic anthem. I my opinion, this vocal has nothing redeeming. First of all, they use autotune for no reason. At least Travis Scott and T-Pain use it for their vibe and have experimental and interesting beats around it. All the autotune does in this track is sap out any life the vocal may have had…like a music vampire. If putting up with this vocal, that has as much heart as an electric toothbrush, isn’t enough, there are these self-serious spoken word sections that are infuriating. Like The Strokes want you to stop and listen to some sage words about why love sucks before you embark in yet another round of autotune torture.

This track is cynical, self-indulgent, creatively bankrupt and devoid of heart. It feels like a cash grab. Like they would bank on previous hits and sneak this bye to get some listens and downloads. There is nothing enjoyable about this track and putting out this review is a public service. The Strokes used to be a transgressive and bold band…now they are autotune slop.

Listen to Falling Out of Love