yes, this little 3 track ep IS where begin. This IS it. in it's own little way, but funnily enough this is the last thing i've bought/heard from them! When i first heard Hard to Explain on triple j and was playing it over and over again on the end of an off the radio mix tape, i could not find the modern age ep ANYWHERE. But luckily by the time i'd become fascinted by that new yorky, raw, melody hung sound 'is this it' was already out...i think...it's all a bit of the blur, anyway this isn't important, but i'll keep going. So, the modern age ep which i recently found in Beat, turned right around in tracks, made a weird yelping noise, gained a few weird looks from by standers and bought the damn thing right away. This is where the story gets interesting, upon getting home and listening to it, this was my fucked up reaction: i cracked up laughing. i am so sorry i couldn't help it. Maybe i was just excited that i'd found it, but either way it made me chuckle and it still does. 'Hard to Explain' shuts me up in awe or something, but the first stuff they ever did after hearing where they are now, just made me laugh and raise an eyebrow. Like, i expected the natural sound from 'is this it' from the current strokes sound i know and love, that thing in julians voice where is so natural, so second nature, so raw and honest and easy, like he's just talking to you, same with the music, like its just there doing its amzing thing...but the modern age ep, whoa, they sound a) younger b) excited c) anxious and d) ....really excited and anxious and nervous. haha. It's like through out the songs you just get this vibe overlaying everything that is like them saying "holy shit, we're recording something that people will be buying! this is so fucking exciting!!" it's great, it's so cute and still honest and everything, just different mood-wise to where they are now, they've like setteled comfortably into a niche now and i'm sure they'll settle into many different sound niche's during there career, but its subtle but noticable how they've grown inbetween now and the modern age ep. The sound of the band and everything is even anixous and pulsating and exciting, you get excited for them just hearing it, and in Julian's voice too, it isn't as droaning and sleepy and natural, but again more anxious and totally fucked excited and kinda nervous or soemthing. Other differences apart from that are slight lyrical changes in barely legal (5$ wont get me far, my last resort is to steal your car) and an extra really cool little solo in bl too. Plus, i swear Julian is doing a Cher in the modern age. *ahem* "loooong toime ago-o-o-o-oh-ah" i just kept thinking "if i could tuuuurn back ti-i-i-i-o-mah" hahahaha it was kinda funny...he sounds kinda yokel at times too "they's tella sto-reh..." it's pretty cool.
So yes, on the modern age ep after hearing abd being acustomed to 'is this it', they could pass for a bunch of excited, pogoing, totally amped 17 year olds recording something for the first time. it's so cute, it's so touching and so funny. kinda. |