''Comedown Machine'' is the fifth studio album by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

the Strokes The Strokes are an American rock band from New York City. Formed in 1998, the band is composed of lead singer and songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Mor ...

. It was released on March 26, 2013, through

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. The band decided to pull a

media blackout Media blackout is the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be voluntary, or may in some countries be enforced by the government or state. The latter case is controversial in ...

for the album, with no promotion in the form of television appearances, interviews, photoshoots, live shows, or tours. The cover artwork was designed to resemble an old RCA tape reel box. ''Comedown Machine'' received mostly positive reviews from critics, and was placed at number 41 on the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''s list of the "50 Best Albums of 2013".

Promotion and release

Before the release of the album the song "One Way Trigger" was released as a

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and was made available for streaming via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

and

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...

, and as a free download via the band's official website on January 25, 2013. Julian Casablancas posted a stylized lyric sheet for the song, designed by long-time collaborator

Warren Fu Warren Fu is an American music video director, illustrator and designer. He has directed videos for artists such as Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, The Strokes, the Killers, Hayley Williams, Mark Ronson, and Julian Casablancas. Fu is signed to ...

, on his official website on January 30, 2013. "All the Time" was released as a digital download on February 19, 2013 and later released as a

7-inch In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separat ...

single on April 20, 2013 and contained "Fast Animals" as the B-side.

Reception

Critical

Media response to ''Comedown Machine'' was generally favorable; the aggregating website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reports a weighted average rating of 68%, based on 44 reviews. "Whether you're in an ''

Is This It ''Is This It'' is the debut studio album by American rock band the Strokes. It was first released on July 30, 2001, in Australia, with RCA Records handling the release internationally and Rough Trade Records handling the United Kingdom release. ...

'' vortex or not, this is The Strokes and they've returned with their most thought-provoking, strange and sexiest record yet," said Kieran Mayall of '' Clash'' magazine. James Skinner of

BBC Music BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio ...

added, "Although plenty of the group’s signature sounds are present and correct, they form the backdrop to an unexpectedly wide range of styles and approaches." In contrast,

Rob Sheffield Robert James Sheffield (born February 2, 1966) is an American music journalist and author. He is a long time contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', writing about music, TV, and pop culture. Previously, he was a contributing editor at '' Ble ...

of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' questioned why the album was "an official Strokes album instead of another Casablancas solo album."

Commercial

Without much promotional effort, ''Comedown Machine'' entered the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

at No. 10 but became the band's first album not to debut within the top three. The album did, however, give the band their fifth consecutive appearance in the top ten. Likewise, it reached No.10 in the US with an entry sales week of 41,000 copies, the band's weakest performance since ''

'' in 2001.

Track listing

Personnel

The Strokes * Julian Casablancas – vocals *

Albert Hammond Jr. Albert Hammond Jr. (''born'' Hammond III; born April 9, 1980) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his role as rhythm and lead guitarist, as well as occasional keyboard player and backing vocalist ...

– guitar, keyboards *

Nick Valensi Nicholas Valensi (born January 16, 1981) is an American musician and songwriter, best known for his role as lead and rhythm guitarist in the American rock band The Strokes. Since 2001, the band has released six studio albums, some of which Valen ...

– guitar, keyboards, Mellotron on "80's Comedown Machine" *

Nikolai Fraiture Nikolai Philippe Fraiture (born November 13, 1978) is an American musician best known as the bassist of the American rock band The Strokes. Since co-founding the band in 1998, he has released six studio albums with them. Among other creative pr ...

– bass guitar,

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

on "Call It Fate, Call It Karma" *

Fabrizio Moretti Fabrizio Moretti (born June 2, 1980) is a Brazilian-American musician and visual artist best known as the drummer for American rock band The Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since 2001. A collaborative artist, he has been pa ...

– drums, percussion Production *Gus Oberg – producer,

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*Phil Joly – engineer * Dave Lutch – mastering Design *Brett Kilroe – art direction, design *Fab Moretti – art direction *Tina Ibañez – design *Colin Lane – original band photography *Jason McDonald –

still life photography Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. Similar to still life painting, it is the application of photography to the still life artistic style. Ta ...

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums The Strokes albums RCA Records albums Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios