The Strokes Plan New Album for 2013
They've stayed pretty tight-lipped about it until now, but it looks like the Strokes are gearing up to release a new album later this year.
Rumors have run rampant since last summer, when it was reported that the band had holed up in New York's legendary Electric Lady Studios with producer Gus Oberg, who handled partial mixing duties on their last studio set, 2011's 'Angles.' While the Strokes' label and management have remained cagey when it comes to offering concrete details, Billboard reports that its sources have confirmed the existence of a new record, slated for release "later this year."
The Strokes rumor mill recently cranked back into overdrive after a Seattle radio station announced that it had obtained the new record's leadoff single, titled 'All the Time.' Teasing that "We'll have to 'leak' this soon. You won't be disappointed...," the station kicked off a fresh round of speculation that has now apparently been confirmed -- and although we still don't have a release date for the new LP, the single's circulation suggests we won't have to wait long.
The new album comes roughly two years after 'Angles,' which might feel like a long time for ardent Strokes fans, but it's a far shorter gestation period than the whopping five years it took them between 'Angles' and 2006's 'First Impressions of Earth.' Whatever the band has been up to, it seems like the songs are flowing faster; as guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.'s father said when speaking with the NME, "I don't think they'll go in a wildly different direction. Obviously the songs will be different, but I think the Strokes are the Strokes; they always will be the Strokes."