Angles was billed as the first collaborative Strokes record, yet it wasn’t clear who wrote what when the album was released on March 22.
Until now.
ASCAP has posted the composers of every song by The Strokes. For Angles, the songwriting credits are as follows…
- Machu Picchu — Julian Casablancas and Nick Valensi
- Under Cover of Darkness — Casablancas, Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr. and Fabrizio Moretti
- Two Kinds of Happiness — Casablancas
- You’re So Right — Casablancas and Nikolai Fraiture
- Taken For A Fool — Casablancas, Moretti and Valensi
- Games — Casablancas, Hammond Jr. and Valensi
- Call Me Back — Casablancas and Valensi
- Gratisfaction — Casablancas, Moretti and Valensi
- Metabolism — Casablancas, Moretti and Valensi
- Life Is Simple In The Moonlight (link) — Casablancas
I’m not terribly surprised by the results, as we knew Nick and Julian — the lyricist — were the primary songwriters on the album. Does anything stand out to you?
{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
i find it interesting that “two kinds of happiness” was written solely by casablancas.
1. i thought in one of the interviews it said the only song written solely by casablancas was “Life is Simple”.
2. i still after all this time can not warm up to the chorus of this song. the verse and intro parts are great, and sets up for a stellar chorus that just doesn’t come. i thought that this song was a casualty of the collaborative effort, but i guess i was wrong.
Life Is Simple is on the site, but it’s not listed under The Strokes for some reason. Julian is the sole writer.
http://www.ascap.com/ace/search.cfm?requesttimeout=300&mode=results&searchstr=880600447&search_in=i&search_type=exact&search_det=t,s,w,p,b,v&results_pp=25&start=1
(I hope the link works.)
@Michelle — It does. Thank you. Updating post now.
Hey! Way to go, Nick!
(Fab too)
Now I understand why Julian said that his favoite song from Angles is LISITM…
It would be interesting to know which one of them that wrote the lyrics, melody or decided how the songs should be played.
I always thought Julian did all of those things, especially when that was the case officially.
But now I’m terribly confused :/
Well now we know that Julian contributed to every song,.I find it odd that Julian himself wrote LISINTM, one of my favorite Strokes songs of all time, but also made Two Kinds of Happiness,which I consider the weakest song in the album.
lol at albert being so stingy with songs.
“two kinds…” sounds like a phrazes b -side. i wonder what the people of who’ve been complaining about wanting julian back at the helm will think about it that.
This is bad look what Julian is saying…http://www.nme.com/news/the-strokes/56354
“frenemies” = NAIL……………
I was just thinking the other day about what the next single from the album should be and my pick was by far Two Kinds of Happiness without even knowing that Julian was the sole writer of the song. Now that I know, it just reiterated the fact that he’s the best songwriter in the band. Its definitely a standout song on the album for me.
Absence of Albert on some of the songs is surprising (though it seems for Angles he voluntarily took on a passive role). Absence of Nikolai in most of the songwriting isn’t altogether surprising but idk, kind of a bummer. And I am a bit surprised that there isn’t at least one song that Julian didn’t have anything to do with. He still has ultimate veto power.
@Mary Shea — Julian being on every song isn’t too big of a surprise because he writes the lyrics on each track. You’re So Right is, arguably, the best live song on the album and Nikolai wrote the entire thing except for the lyrics. So Julian’s presence on each song is a bit misleading, I think.
They all work on their parts. It’s not like Albert and Nikolai had nothing to do with the songs they didn’t “write.” They didn’t pick the chords or the vocal melody but I’m sure they worked on and changed their parts.
yeah the fact that casablancas name is on everything doesnt mean much musically cause it could have just been lyrics on alot of them. I really wish there was a music/lyric distinction. and yeah the only thing i was really suprised by was Two kinds. I was working under a theory that that was alberts big moment on the album for writing. And i was suprised that fab was credited so much, i wonder what that means he actually did.
Despite everything Jules is still my favorite stroke though.
It was pretty obvious Life Is Simple was Julian’s track from what he said on NME that time, that he had a kind of brazilian melody for a while and he got a good chours he liked and basically said it was his favourite. He even uploaded de lyrics on his page, it seems that its the only song he is really proud of the album.
Two kind of happiness is only from Julian? Sounds about right…I liked it from the first listen.
I wish that the new site has the lyrics of all the tracks.
that NME thing is total crap. everything is taken waay out of context. chill out yall
I’m surprised JC is the sole songwriter on Two Kinds of Happiness. Probably one of the weakest songs on the album, IMO.
I think I’m even more surprised Fab is co-credited with so many songs (almost half the album). It’s hard to tell how much each member really contributed to each song obviously.
Life Is Simple is definitely the best song, IMO. The rest of the members should just let him write the songs, he’s clearly the best songwriter in the band and it’s not even close.
Oh right, the lyrics. That makes sense.
Sorry I’m behind on this, but where was it revealed that Julian did lyrics for every song?
I’m kinda surprised Nikolai didn’t write more. And I’m with you @Dillon, sometimes bands will do a designation on the writing credits “lyrics by…” “music by…” which would be nice so we could see which of the band members were contributing to which parts. As far as the NME thing, it seems like the media is trying to make us all think they hate each other and that Julian in particular hates being a Stroke. I almost wish, for the sake of hardcore fans, they wouldn’t do anymore interviews so that we can all stop worrying that they are on the verge of killing one another
I was also a bit surprised that Fab got credited on TFAF because in the video Nik says he’s practicing a little number by Nick Valensi called TFAF
@TAW — The media writes what they write for pageviews. If you remember back to the Pitchfork story, that got thousands of retweets and FB likes and links because it’s controversial. People like gossip about celebrities and The Strokes are celebrities. The Strokes just need to stop doing press.
Also, I want to see the other pages of the Q Mag article. She’s Fixing doesn’t have them all, I reckon.
I don’t know why, but I always thought “Call Me Back” was written by Albert.
Oh, and yeah: when do we get official lyrics??? They should really put them on the new website.
@Other Bobby
Working on individual parts and deciding song structures isn’t “writing” a song in the technical sense. That’s arranging, and you get pretty much no credit for it. If you come up with a guitar solo, for instance, that’s arrangement, not writing. The Strokes have always arranged together, except for the first record, which Julian essentially arranged in its entirety. For the purposes of ASCAP, writing credit means you wrote the basic chord progression, the melody, and/or the lyrics.
Really surprising how heavily Fab was involved. How many bands can say the drummer is a killer songwriter?
@ Eric: She has the rest of them up now
I don’t know why people don’t like Two Kinds of Happiness. It’s grown to be one of my favs on the album, and I’ve been wondering who was responsible for it. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised
the media will surely be the death of this wonderful band….
Maybe Fab was more involved with the songwriting with Little Joy than I thought. I always figured most of the songwriting was done by the main singer, but maybe that wasn’t the case.
I don’t understand that NME article, I thought Nick said that he didn’t like solo projects and now he wants to do one himself? And by using material that was written together with the band? Makes no sense.
Bobby — Here’s what NME is talking about: http://thestrokesnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-Strokes-Q-Magazine-9.jpg
@Ellie, I completely agree. I have no clue why there’s some that are hating on Two Kinds, I think it’s one of the strongest on the album but we’re all allowed our opinions
Metabolism, gratisfaction, notice that all the decent songs are the ones written with Jules and Fab. I have always had the feeling that Fab was a good song writer when he wrote this little classic, clear skies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2g0aQdsnXc
@Bobby
I know. I thought Nick was good guy this whole time. He went to take care of his kids, he didnt do a solo album, he didnt do heavy drugs… and now we know the truth. He wanted to steel Julians work for his solo album, he threw guitars all over the place etc. But remember everyone, he is Jewish. Jews is Jews.
Thanks for the link, Eric. Still confused, though. “He [Valensi] wanted to do a solo record of songs we that we arranged together in The Strokes but because we have a contract he wasn’t allowed to do that.”
I don’t think the band will be around much longer, hate to say it, but that’s definitely the sense I get from all these articles. It took them 5 years to release their worst album. I hope I’m wrong and all these negative articles are being spinned and taken out of context, but I dunno. That Q interview has some pretty harsh comments from JC.
If you’re realllly bored (like me) and have a look at Nick’s wife’s twitter, she is saying all the stuff about Nick and the solo record is BS/lies
Amanda and Nick vs. Julian. Dear God, will this ever stop?
this is like a reality tv show
Ofcourse Julians is the best. He’ve always been and will always be. He is a legend i the moonlight haha.
As for fab I think that when he makes his own drum style on for example you’re so right. I would say that he was co, writing the song. As for Taken, Games, Call Me Back i’m pretty sure he just did the lyrics. And guys.. There has been interviews where he seems happy enough (he’s never happy but) with them working together. But angles is the worst album the’ve made. And it’s a good album
It’s becoming depressing reading these interviews. There is a ton of animosity here. Talking about each other in interviews, doing separate interviews, I’d be very surprised if they didn’t get out of their contract. How can these guys possibly record an album together?
Should (or likely, when) the Strokes break up, would you guys want to see Nick, Fab, Albert and Nikolai soldier on? Not as the Strokes, but as a new band altogether?
A few years ago Rolling Stone once wrote “It will end in tears, no doubt, but the Strokes were the most fun band around in their moment: so fast, so slatternly, so generous with the amphe-fe-fe-fetamine hooks.” It will end in tears, but those tears won’t be from the band. It will be from their fans.
Glad to see Fab so involved – he wrote a bunch of excellent songs on the Little Joy album. Kind of surprised he did not co-write “Call Me Back” or “Life Is Simple” given that those two have Brazilian/bossa nova elements.
Note for the songs that Life is Simple in the Moonlight is published by Julian Casablancas Publishing (same publishing as his solo stuff), while the rest are published by Strokes Band Music. I wonder why he kept the publishing rights to that one and only one song? Maybe he wrote it for his solo project and published it before it was released on Angles?
Why are you surprised about Fab’s songwriting capabilities. He was co-writer in every Little Joy song and a few of them are just written by him. And every damn track on Little Joy is good.
Maybe great bands aren’t meant to be together for so long… Look at The Beatles…
Well, I’m just a bit disappointed that Nick wrote Call Me Back because I hate that song. I know he’s been an asshole in interviews, but his music has always been great. Whatever.
I wonder if there will be another album or if they’ll break up before they finish? I hope it’s not the latter…
I think Life is Simple is the best song when you hear it live, like when they did it on SNL. When you just hear the version on the album, it sounds badly mixed/produced.
And I actually noticed a lot of the songs I didn’t really like on Angles, I like a lot better when I hear them live cause it actually sounds like The Strokes, not a badly produced version of them. EX, I liked Games and Gratisfaction a lot better after hearing them at Coachella, and like I previously mentioned, I love Life is Simple when I listen to the live version on SNL, not so much when I listen to the album version.
Anyone else agree??
This isn’t their worst album. It’s way better than FIOE. That record only has a couple listenable songs. This record really only has two stinkers, “Games” and “You’re So Right.” The rest of the album is great. In response to a few of the other comments, “Two Kinds of Happiness” is a good song. It’s obvious that they were going for an early Cars / Tom Petty kind of thing and that vibe gels nicely with the upbeat, chorus section. You’re so Right really is a lousy song. I thought it was even worse live with Nick’s terrible vocal part. The JF footage was painful to watch.
The egos in this band have always been a mile high but it translated since they were all on the same page. Now they just seem like pompous rock stars. Wonder if these guys realize how lucky they are to be doing what they’re doing for a living. Sigh…
This is horrible.
I’m referring to both NME interviews. 2011 is THE pivotal year where their new album comes out since 5 years ago. I feel like a kid in the middle of a bitter divorce. The last thing I wanna hear is that the band is breaking up. Also, as fans, can’t we all just try a little harder to keep them together? I’m sure dissing / calling any particular members a-holes and creating stories about egos isn’t helping any.
From a first time commenter/visitor of this site but a longtime fan of The Strokes who feels like she’s been waiting for Angles for an eternity. And now that it’s out fans are arguing tt it sucks and media are spinning stories and sparring them to break-up
like wtf
I always thought life is simple in the moonlight was by Julian
ya’ll got it all wrong. LISINTM= good song, weak chorus. Two Kinds of Happiness= dope. Taken for a Fool= Ill. But,… METABOLISM= best god damn song of the decade, in my opinion. No one has even mentioned Metabolism as the next single, shit it shoulda been the only single. Maadd props to Jules, Fab, and Nick for putting that one together. so dank
-So DANK
lol all of their albums are enjoyable and they’re all friends and band mates who are very professional in their songwriting and live playing do you need to know more?