2006: #9 - "You Only Live Once"

Though their 2001 debut album Is This It? has inexplicably appeared on and even topped numerous Best of the 00's album lists, the lilting "You Only Live Once" from the unfairly maligned First Impressions of Earth quite possibly bests any song from The Strokes' catalog, including much, if not all, of the supposed classic debut.

Apparently, the band realized there was more to music than 1970's New York, as "You Only Live Once" is more Southern Cal than Lower East Side. With a laid-back swing and crooned vocals, The Strokes abandoned the nervous VU-via-Ramones sound we had been accustomed to hearing and achieved something emotional and even mature-sounding (in a good way).

Even the always stunning guitarwork has shifted gears, slightly - the bright arpeggioed leads that appeared all 2nd album Room On Fire here sound sort of like mid-period Pavement (with a little more shine and a little less ugly) as opposed to VU or sloppy Television.

They seem to have disappeared for now, but if The Strokes can expand on what they did here, maybe they do have a real Album of the Decade in them.