First Impressions of Earth is the third studio album by American rock band the Strokes. It was released through RCA Records first on December 30, 2005, in Germany, and on January 3, 2006, elsewhere.[1] Three singles were released from the album: "Juicebox", "Heart in a Cage", and "You Only Live Once".
Recording
The album was recorded over a ten-month period. The Strokes initially set out to record it with Gordon Raphael, the producer of their first two albums. Later on however, guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. introduced them to Grammy Award-winning producer David Kahne (Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Sublime), and they brought him in to collaborate with Raphael. However, the collaboration did not work out so Raphael stepped down. As a result, Kahne produced the majority of the album.
The album has a score of 69 out of 100 from Metacritic based on 38 reviews indicating "generally favorable reviews".[2] Some of the reviews were among the harshest the Strokes had received up to this point in the band's recording career. For instance, Heather Phares of AllMusic called the album the Strokes' "weakest album yet."[3] At the same time, the album also received positive reviews from the likes of Will Hermes of Entertainment Weekly who praised the album and thought it was a marked improvement over the Strokes' previous album Room on Fire.[6] In his "Consumer Guide", Robert Christgau gave the album a three-star honorable mention () while picking out two songs from the album ("You Only Live Once" and "Ask Me Anything") and stating, "You know how it is--the gym does more for your wind than for your jump shot."[13]
Other reviews were positive. Playlouder gave it four-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "Turns out what the world was waiting for really was those that saved guitars finally making a record that truly reaped the rewards of their efforts."[14] Punknews.org gave it a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "What exactly it is the Strokes ultimately hope to achieve with their music remains to be seen. However, so long as they continue to put out quality discs with high replay value, they will remain that rare breed of band where hype did not spoil the goods."[15]MusicOMH gave it a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five and stated, "For the first six songs, the whole thing is as exhilarating as Is This It, it's in a different way, undoubtedly, but there's the same giddy rush of excitement."[16]Stylus Magazine gave it a B− and called it "the first pretty good album of the year."[17]Tiny Mix Tapes also gave the album a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "There is indeed more good than bad. Unfortunately, there is also more bad than there should be."[18]
The Strokes live at Stubb's March 14th night before SXSW
Some of the reviews are mixed or negative. Drowned in Sound gave it a score of six out of ten and stated, "Cast away the politics and the last twenty minutes and you'll still be left with two or three top tunes to add to your daily playlists, but it was never going to be ground-breaking or innovative."[19]Uncut gave it three stars out of five and said, "The ambition's hampered by Julian Casablancas' sad-sack singing."[2]Paste also gave it a score of six out of ten and stated, "By the time they're through brandishing quotations, The Strokes don't have much of their own to say here."[20]Slant Magazine gave it two-and-a-half stars out of five and said it "introduces some subtle new colors to the band's musical palette... but the pervasive sense of inert boredom, which has been noted as a strength in the past, is difficult to shake."[21]PopMatters gave it a score of five stars out of ten and said, "While it might be easy to point to the industry guy behind the boards, the album speaks for itself, and the Strokes managed to write a flop all by themselves."[22]
"Heart in a Cage" was the album's second single, followed by "You Only Live Once". NME rated First Impressions of Earth at #8 in its Albums of the Year 2006 list.[23]
Commercial
First Impressions of Earth entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, the Strokes' first album at the top spot. The album peaked at #4 in the US, with an entry sales week of 88,000 units, somewhat below the performance of its predecessors. In Canada, the album debuted at #3, selling just under 10,000 copies.[24] As of October 2006, the album had sold 271,000 units in the US, and has received gold certification for sold over 500.000 units by RIAA in June 2021.[25] Although the album was the band's first release to reach #1 on any chart worldwide, it is the only one not to reach UK platinum status, and spent much less time on the charts than the previous albums. However, it has still achieved gold sales in Australia.[26] and UK.[27]
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Julian Casablancas; all music is composed by Casablancas, except where noted.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
