The New Abnormal

Zero memory of this.

Um, the next album is The New Abnormal in 2020.

It's cr- it's crazy how it just snuck up on us.

It was just all of a sudden-

...

I was just so up in the house that I remember listening to these albums over and over and over again Okay.

Well, The New Abnormal came out about three and a half Smooth Weeks after-

Mm-hmm

But they persevered and put out six more studio albums after Is This It? Did they ever have another hit album like their first one?

Yeah, you know, it's interesting because they put out a record in 2020 called The New Abnormal that came out right as the COVID lockdowns were happening.

And there's a really interesting parallel there with Is This It arriving in the wake of 9-11 and how the Strokes inadvertently become the soundtrack for these huge disasters, really, in America.

And the new Abnormal ends up having its own kind of resonance.

I mean, it's a really strong record.

But also there was this whole new generation of people that latched on to them in the same way that when I was a kid, I latched on to.

I was like the adult chaperone for this audience.

It was all 15 to 25 year olds, people that weren't even born for the most part when the first record came out.

So for me, I like that they've continued on, and I, and I actually think that there is something to be said for weathering those periods and having records that people will revisit later on, and maybe d- like, realize that they're better than you thought.

I mean, in the case of The Strokes, you know- They had this record, The New Abnormal, that came out in 2020 that for a younger audience is like The Strokes' record.

I mean, that's the one.

It's a great record.

Wow.

It was mostly people between the ages of 15 and 25, and you know, they'd play Room on Fire songs, and people would be into it.

But when they played, you know, The Adults Are Talking or Ode to the Mets or some other song from, uh, The New Abnormal, that's what made them really excited.

And for them, it was like seeing The Stones when I was 16.