"Under Cover of Darkness" is a song 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 More ...

. The single served as the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

for their fourth studio album, ''

Angles The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ' ...

'', and was released online on February 9, 2011 as a free

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...

for 48 hours exclusively. It was the first single release from the band in five years, following the release of " You Only Live Once" in 2006. "Under Cover of Darkness" received positive reviews, managing to reach

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's A Playlist; before going on to debut at number 47 on the respective chart. In October 2011, ''

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 ...

'' placed it at number 133 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for the song was released on March 2, 2011. The video was directed and produced by

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 Par ...

Loew's Jersey Theatre The Loew's Jersey Theatre is a theater in Jersey City, New Jersey. Opened in 1929, it was one of the five Loew's Wonder Theatres, a series of flagship Loew's movie palaces in the New York City area. It was designed by the architectural firm of Rapp ...

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

on February 17, 2011. The video begins with a clip of the music video for " You Only Live Once", and contains a reference to the song "

Last Nite "Last Nite" is a song by American rock band the Strokes. It was released on October 23, 2001, as the second single from their debut album, ''Is This It'' (2001). It was a moderate hit for the group on the UK Singles Chart in 2001. Background ...

". The reference occurs when Julian Casablancas throws his microphone stand (which he also did in the video for "Last Nite") while stating that "everybody's singing the same song for 10 years." This led some to believe he was talking about the longevity of arguably the band's most popular single. However, in a 2014 interview, Casablancas stated that this line was an opinion of the music business essentially churning out the same old pop music without ever innovating, and not a reference to The Strokes or any particular band.

Commercial performance

"Under Cover of Darkness" is the third most successful single in the band's discography. It peaked at number 12 on Billboard's

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart and charted a total of 17 weeks.

In popular culture

"Under Cover Of Darkness" was made available for download on July 24, 2012 to play in

Rock Band 3 ''Rock Band 3'' is a 2010 music video game developed by Harmonix. The game was initially published and distributed by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, respectively, in late October 2010. Mad Catz took over both roles and re-released the title on N ...

Basic and PRO mode utilizing real guitar / bass guitar, and MIDI compatible electronic drum kits / keyboards. It appears on the setlist for

Rocksmith ''Rocksmith'' is a music video game produced by Ubisoft, released in October 2011 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms in North America. ''Rocksmith'' was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 during September 2012 in Australian and Europ ...

which was released in October, 2011 in North America. The song is also featured on the soundtrack for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

simulation game NBA 2K15 which was released on October, 2014 in North America.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certification

Release history

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Under Cover Of Darkness The Strokes songs 2011 singles Songs written by Julian Casablancas Songs written by Nikolai Fraiture Songs written by Fabrizio Moretti Songs written by Nick Valensi Songs written by Albert Hammond Jr. 2011 songs Rough Trade Records singles RCA Records singles Music videos directed by Warren Fu