I wasn’t always a huge fan of The Strokes.

I’m not the type of listener who is easily won over — artists have to earn a spot on my playlists, and The Strokes just didn’t merit one at first. Unlike most die-hard Strokes fans, I wasn’t even an avid listener until well after “Angles” was released in 2011. But one night at a party, a friend (who coincidentally happened to be wearing a Strokes shirt) played “Last Nite” on vinyl for me, and I was hooked.

Ever since that fateful night, The Strokes has constantly been with me (quite literally — I keep a physical copy of “Angles” in my glove compartment). So, when I got the news that a new Strokes album was set to be released this year, I was beyond stoked. 

That excitement didn’t last long.

While old Strokes records flow freely and sound as if they’ve been engineered without much conscious effort, “Comedown Machine” sounds so meticulously put together that it actually hurts. It seems as if the band worked so hard to break away from its previous sound that it completely lost sight of what it was working toward. The Strokes is a band that has always promised a pure rock sound, and “Comedown Machine” certainly does not deliver.

The main problem with the album is that it lacks the few catchy songs that are the Strokes’              signature. There is no “Under the Cover of Darkness” and no “Someday.” The record attempts an enormous buildup to an overarching greatness that simply never presents itself. 

I felt like I spent the first half of the record waiting for something amazing to happen, only to be left disappointed when the 39 minutes were over. “Comedown Machine’s” one solace is “Happy Ending,” and that’s only because it’s reminiscent of “Angles.” If Julian Casablancas was reading this, he’d probably say, “That was the old Strokes, this is the new Strokes.” 

If this is the new Strokes, then I don’t want in.

Grade: D-

 Rebecca Docter is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from  Brandon, Miss.