The Strokes, Room on Fire (RCA Records)

The hype is justified. With nearly everyone assuming and praying the snotty rich Manhattan boys crumple and wither into Next Big Thing failures, they went out and bested their debut. Room On Fire sticks to a similar formula, mining garage rock and street savvy punk, but adding some interesting detours to keep the naysayers guessing. Sure, all the blatant Manhattan influences of the Stooges, Television and the Velvet Underground remain, but the Strokes aren’t slaves to their heroes. They use them as launching pads. While they would like to be imagined as uncompromising artists, it’s obvious they aim to please. Amid the distortion and guitar crunch of songs like “Automatic Stop” and “The End Has No End,” lurk undeniable gifts of melody and relentless hooks. Though a weak track doesn’t exist, the album’s highlight would have to be the ’80s flashback of “12:51” with its good times handclaps and snaky guitar hook. Drummer Fab Moretti has created beats that dangerously veer out of the rock canon into R&B and soul territory, especially on the B-Boy breakbeat of “Between Love and Hate.” He pilfers John Bonham on the sexually charged, almost Stax-styled ballad “Under Control,” where singer Julian Casablancas seductively croons “You are young, darling. For now, but not for long.” Casablancas teeters between snarly contempt and aw shucks innocence throughout the record declaring, “I’m sick of you and that’s the way it is” one minute and pleading “Take it slow, but don’t warn me” the next. He also proves to be well aware of the rock savior pressures surrounding the album by opening the record with the telling line, “I want to be forgotten, and I don’t want to be reminded.” Still, it’s hard to feel sorry for a bunch of guys with movie star girlfriends and intentionally messy haircuts.