WHAT'S THE DEAL? Highly anticipated second album from the impossibly hip New Yorkers.

TO BE HONEST: Having nearly fallen apart in the midst of the hype, tours, and girls (Amanda De Cadenet, Drew Barrymore, you know the drill) which followed the release of Is This It?, we find a changed Strokes on the follow-up. Frontman Julian Casablancas was always strangely world-weary for the son of a fashion millionaire, and Room On Fire is a more complex affair, the sound of a whole band struggling with itself.
The Strokes' wired energy is their great quality, but there's so much tension here, it takes a few listens to be properly drawn in. And several more to figure out what the croaky Casablancas is saying. When you do, you realise only Lou Reed can beat him for bitterness. 'I'm not gonna give you a break / I'm not your friend, I never was,' he spits on reggae-tinged 'Automatic Stop'. The surprise of The Strokes doing a slow love song, 'The Way It Is', is slapped away by the words, 'I wish I didn't hate you / but that's the way it is.' A couple of the songs feel over-complicated, but this is mostly an intriguing album by a band working out its frustrations in the studio. MR

LISTEN OUT FOR: The Cars, Lou Reed, the sound of bar brawls.

SERVING SUGGESTION: On the first night out after being dumped.