As with their other albums, Impressions takes a while to sink in before it converts you entirely, before the hype melts away and the hooks sink in. With The Strokes, there are always three or four songs you like right away, and then you get the delayed pay-off of coming to love the other, more difficult ones. Since the album is nearly twice as long as the previous two combined, there’s that much more to love.
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The album kicks off with the exuberant blast of “You Only Live Once,” currently Julian’s favorite new track.
“We worked on that one so much, it didn’t even mean anything to me anymore,” he says, “but now that I’ve gone away and come back to it, and played it live, the meaning of it, it sums up the record for me a bit, and a moment in time.” It begins in typical Stroke fashion, with the steady pulse of the bass pumping out 8th notes that form the backbone of much of their earlier material. But nine seconds in, a sweet falsetto enters, and combined with the chiming guitars, it sounds almost like U2 inviting in a beautiful day. “Sit me down,” Julian advises, “and shut me up. I’ll calm down, and I’ll get along with you.”
You don’t have to be a serious audiophile to realize that the band has divested themselves of their trebly, lo-fi sonic identity. Impressions is recorded in full color. The Strokes, having built their own studio for the occasion, began working on the album with Gordon Raphael once again manning the boards. Knowing that avoiding sounding too much like Room on Fire would be crucial to the album’s acceptance, Hammond suggested they bring in seasoned studio vet David Kahne to help out. Kahne had come recommended to him by his friend Sean Lennon. After the band worked with Kahne on three songs, Julian made the decision to drop Raphael and work with Kahne exclusively.
Kahne’s name is an eyebrow raiser. As a producer, he’s worked with such pop-rock acts as No Doubt, Sugar Ray, the Bangles and Sublime. He is also somewhat infamous for being the Reprise Records executive who didn’t hear the commercial potential in Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Placed temporarily in charge of the label’s A&R Department after a period of heavy lay-offs, and facing a high demand for radio hits, Kahne facilitated Wilco’s release from their contract. That album went on to be both a critical smash and the band’s best-selling album, a major embarrassment for Reprise.
It’s easy to picture Kahne as a Dr. Evil-type figure, the record company player who cares only about making hits, not art; there are no signs of corporate tinkering of any kind on Impressions, no Kelly Clarkson-style hooks, no co-writing credits with Swedish song doctors, no guest appearances by Ludacris or the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Instead, Kahne punches up their sound, giving them a third dimension, and pushes Julian’s vocals way up in the mix.
The band had trouble adjusting to Kahne at first, and Julian was worried about creating anything that could be construed as too accessible. Kahne drove them hard and demanded a lot of takes, but they quickly came to respect his input, and for Julian, ideas and songs began to flow. The producer also encouraged him to sing outside of his vocal range, and the results can be heard to excellent effect on “Juicebox” and “Killing Lies.”
I enjoyed this.