The Strokes
Comedown Machine
RCA/Rough Trade
***
Last time around, on their less-than-rapturously-received 2011 album Angles, The Strokes appeared in disarray. Tales of disconnected studio sessions, with their vocalist Julian Casablancas and his band mates communicating via email, sounded like a how-to guide on creating a joyless record. Was this it for the New Yorkers?
Not quite, it seems. Comedown Machine finds the quintet in an infinitely better place and, with Casablancas fully back in the fold, his influence is writ large once again.
At times we're on territory nearer his 1980s solo set Phrazes for the Young. One Way Trigger, indeed, threatens to break out into A-Ha's Take on Me at any moment, while 80's Comedown Machine is wholly self-descriptive.
Certainly, fans who climbed onto the bandwagon during their debut Is This It might scratch their heads. Casablancas's trademark brash drawl has largely departed and the curve-ball closer Call It Fate, Call It Karma sonically ventures toward New York City in Boardwalk Empire era. Comedown Machine isn't a return to The Strokes' leather-jacket-clad pomp, but an overflowing new-found expansiveness. It is arguably their most intriguing transmission to date.
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In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
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TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Paltan
Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Arjun Rampal, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha and Harshvardhan Rane
Rating: 2/5