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11:52 · 1,873 words of transcript · watch on YouTube
- The original mistake was speed. After the debut the band believed they had to put out another record immediately or lose their career, which turned making music into an obligation.
▶ 00:01:03
- When the follow-ups underperformed the debut they concluded they had not really made it, egos clashed, and members were dealing with drug and alcohol addiction.
▶ 00:01:36
- Casablancas wrote everything on the first three albums, and when the band asked for a more collaborative process after the hiatus he agreed, then recorded most of his parts alone.
▶ 00:01:51
- Angles sounds like a record made by a band that did not want to make it because they did not, with members refusing to be in the same room.
▶ 00:02:06
- Comedown Machine reads as contract fulfilment down to a sleeve that looks deliberately like a label product, followed by a media blackout with no promotion, interviews or tour.
▶ 00:02:21
- Every member went somewhere else: The Voidz, remixes and visual art, solo records, the sludgier band CRX, and a supergroup.
▶ 00:02:36
- Rick Rubin is the hinge, brought in as an overseer rather than a sixth member, and the band say recording this felt closest to making their first album.
▶ 00:03:44
- Rubin's method of stripping songs down and amplifying what is left is audible throughout, in the snappy drums, bright vocals and crisp guitars.
▶ 00:04:14
- The track list is their lightest but not their shortest, with most songs running past five minutes so the instrumental sections can work on their own.
▶ 00:07:52
- The snippets of the band joking between tracks are the real evidence. Hearing them laugh together is what signals the interpersonal recovery the record is actually about, and it earned them their first Grammy.
▶ 00:08:15