First Impressions of Earth
Encyclopedia
First Impressions of Earth is the third album by the American
indie rock
band The Strokes
. It was released in January 2006 (see 2006 in music
), having been preceded by lead single "Juicebox
" some weeks earlier. It is also the first album by The Strokes to have a Parental Advisory Label
and has it in the middle right, which is unusual considering that it is customary to place it in the corners. It is also strange inclusion because the album is not explicit, as it appears on iTunes Store.
, the producer of their first two albums. Later on, guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. introduced them to Grammy Award
-winning producer David Kahne
(Paul McCartney
, Tony Bennett
, Sublime
), who stepped in to collaborate with Raphael. However, the collaboration was not working out and so Raphael stepped down. As a result, the majority of the album was produced by Kahne.
and Room on Fire
. The album received mixed reviews from critics for not being quite the same standard as their previous material, which was universally acclaimed. "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.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band The Strokes
The Strokes
The Strokes are an American indie rock band formed in 1999 in New York City. Consisting of Julian Casablancas , Nick Valensi , Albert Hammond, Jr. , Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti ....
. It was released in January 2006 (see 2006 in music
2006 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.-January:*January 10 – Eric Burdon releases his album Soul of a Man and begins touring with a new band....
), having been preceded by lead single "Juicebox
Juicebox (song)
"Juicebox" is a song by the American rock band The Strokes. It is the second track and first single from The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth, released in the US in October 2005...
" some weeks earlier. It is also the first album by The Strokes to have a Parental Advisory Label
Parental Advisory
Parental Advisory is a message affixed by the Recording Industry Association of America to audio and recordings in the United States containing excessive use of profane language and/or sexual references. Albums began to be labeled for "explicit lyrics" in 1985, after pressure from the Parents...
and has it in the middle right, which is unusual considering that it is customary to place it in the corners. It is also strange inclusion because the album is not explicit, as it appears on iTunes Store.
Recording
The album was recorded over a ten-month period. The Strokes initially set out to record it with Gordon RaphaelGordon Raphael
Gordon Raphael is a record producer and musician from Seattle, Washington and New York, currently working in San Antonio, Texas.Gordon Raphael is most widely known for his work with The Strokes, whom he met while attending one of their very first shows at Luna Lounge on the Lower East Side, New...
, the producer of their first two albums. Later on, guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. introduced them to Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning producer David Kahne
David Kahne
David Kahne is an American record producer. Kahne started his musical career as a working musician and then became notable for his role as in-house producer and engineer at 415 Records, the first American new wave music label, and for his subsequent roles as Vice President of A&R at Columbia...
(Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, Sublime
Sublime (band)
Sublime was an American ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell , Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh . Michael "Miguel" Happoldt also contributed on a few Sublime songs, such as "New Thrash." Lou Dog, Nowell's...
), who stepped in to collaborate with Raphael. However, the collaboration was not working out and so Raphael stepped down. As a result, the majority of the album was produced by Kahne.
Reception
Critical
First Impressions of Earth is widely seen as an expansion beyond The Strokes' first two albums, Is This ItIs This It
Is This It is the debut studio album by American indie rock band The Strokes. Recorded at Transporterraum in New York City with producer Gordon Raphael, after meeting at an early show at Luna Lounge, a former venue on the Lower East Side in NYC, the album was first released on July 30, 2001 in...
and Room on Fire
Room on Fire
Room on Fire is the second studio album by American indie rock band The Strokes. Released in October 2003, it follows 2001's Is This It and includes three singles: "12:51", "Reptilia", and "The End Has No End." Grammy-winning producer Nigel Godrich was initially in charge of production, but The...
. The album received mixed reviews from critics for not being quite the same standard as their previous material, which was universally acclaimed. "Heart in a Cage
Heart in a Cage
"Heart in a Cage" is the second single from The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth released in the UK on 20 March 2006, and worldwide 18 April 2006....
" was the album's second single, followed by "You Only Live Once
You Only Live Once (song)
"You Only Live Once" is the opening track and third single from First Impressions of Earth, the third album from American rock band The Strokes...
". NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
rated First Impressions of Earth at #8 in its Albums of the Year 2006 list.
Commercial
First Impressions of Earth entered the UK album chart at #1, The Strokes' first one 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. As of October 2006, the album had sold 271,000 units in the US, falling short of gold certification. 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.Chart Performance
| Chart | Peak Position |
No. of Weeks on Chart |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... |
4 | 6 |
| Austrian Albums Chart Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
9 | 11 |
| Belgian Flanders Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
21 | 8 |
| Belgian Wallonia Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
26 | 10 |
| Danish Albums Chart Tracklisten Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl... |
10 | 3 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
23 | 6 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 10 | 5 |
| France Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
9 | 33 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
11 | 5 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Recorded Music Association Irish Recorded Music Association is the Irish record industry association. IRMA is a non-profit association set up to manage and control the music industry in the Republic of Ireland.-Goals and activities:... |
3 | 10 |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
25 | 10 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
10 | 5 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
22 | 3 |
| Portuguese Albums Chart Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa The Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa is currently the only recording industry association in Portugal. Created in 1989, it succeeded GPPFV and UNEVA .... |
22 | 4 |
| Spanish Albums Chart | 30 | 7 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
9 | 6 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
11 | 10 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 | 9 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
4 | 5 |
Track listing
Singles
| Information |
|---|
| "Juicebox Juicebox (song) "Juicebox" is a song by the American rock band The Strokes. It is the second track and first single from The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth, released in the US in October 2005... "
|
| "Heart in a Cage Heart in a Cage "Heart in a Cage" is the second single from The Strokes' third album, First Impressions of Earth released in the UK on 20 March 2006, and worldwide 18 April 2006.... " #21 (US Modern Rock) #25 (UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... ) |
| "You Only Live Once You Only Live Once (song) "You Only Live Once" is the opening track and third single from First Impressions of Earth, the third album from American rock band The Strokes... " #35 (US Modern Rock) |
Personnel
- Julian CasablancasJulian CasablancasJulian Fernando Casablancas is an American singer-songwriter and musician of The Strokes. Casablancas pursued a solo career during The Strokes' hiatus, releasing the album Phrazes for the Young on November 3, 2009....
- vocals Moog SynthesizerMoog synthesizerMoog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
Prophet Synthesizer - Albert Hammond, Jr. - guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Nick Valensi - guitar, mellotronMellotronThe Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
on "Ask Me Anything" - Nikolai FraitureNikolai FraitureNikolai Philippe Fraiture is the bass player for the American indie rock band, The Strokes. Fraiture grew up in New York City with his Russian mother and French father and speaks fluent French. Nikolai has an older brother named Pierre and a younger sister named Elizabeth...
- bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Fabrizio MorettiFabrizio MorettiFabrizio Moretti is the drummer of the American indie rock band, The Strokes. Fabrizio’s side project with Rodrigo Amarante of Los Hermanos and Binki Shapiro, entitled Little Joy debuted on Rough Trade Records...
- drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
External links
- First Impressions of Earth at Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....