The Singles Jukebox

Is this it.

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[4.91]

Thomas Inskeep: For years — over a decade, in fact — I’ve said that the only good thing the Strokes ever gave the world was, inadvertently, this. “Oblivius” (that spelling gives me hives) doesn’t change my mind. 
[2]

Alfred Soto: That percolating stew of guitars and not-guitars and a bass in hot pursuit of Julian Casablancas’ vocal melody is the most delicious item these recidivists have cooked since the United States toppled Saddam. And — oh no look a chorus.
[5]

Tim de Reuse: Come on, just a sign, Jules, just give us something to signal to us that you’ve got your grip on some idea or some direction to spin this band out of its decade-long nosedive, even if it doesn’t totally pan out! Alas, there are no promising omens here: the springy guitar lines and bloated song structures that plagued Comedown Machine have been given a healthy dose of Miracle-Gro and they choke the brief spark of emotion in Casablancas’s overwrought delivery to a extended, boring death. It’s not a comeback or a holding pattern or a bold misstep; it’s that devious form of a letdown where the disappointer can’t even be bothered to disappoint in a particularly interesting way.
[4]

Ryo Miyauchi: I wonder what the critics who loved Is This It in 2001 would think about this. Because weren’t The Strokes billed as the direct alternative to solo sections and just excess? They can send off all that guitar noodling for some other thing. The only indulgent thing I’m here to experience is whatever you want to call Julian’s filtered voice thing. He can warble all he wants.
[4]

Jonathan Bradley: I hear this and think of how much of what inhabited our idea of the Strokes was indebted to the particular time and place of New York on the cusp of the new century. Only in a limited way and for a limited set of people: The Blueprint came out a couple months after the debut, bringing with it a different New York and leaving after it, if only due to its release date, a city changed irrevocably. “Oblivius” obliterates all that: The Strokes are no longer even the Lena Dunhams of their age, but just a sound. God, they were better as an affect.
[4]

Brad Shoup: Fifteen years on, everything has Julian’s headcold. It’s fine when it’s the precisely-wielded R&B-style twiddling that the guitars start with: the Strokes once pretended to be from 1975; now, perhaps, they want to be The 1975. But they still want to rock, and they still feel a little guilty about this desire. So they wall up the drummer and have Julian sing phonetically over half-speed glam-metal fretwork like you’d find washed up in the middle of a Girl Talk record. It’s poignant, I think I’m saying.
[6]

Hannah Jocelyn: Maybe “Oblivius” might only sound good to people like me, who’ve read thinkpieces about the Strokes more than actually listened to their work, but after all the varying degrees of hype and anti-hype, it really does sound surprisingly fresh. Maybe it’s the production, denser and more polished than their supremely annoying previous lead-off single “One Way Trigger.” Or maybe it’s that they aren’t as disaffected here as they’ve sounded to me in the past — Julian Casablanca’s falsetto at the end is both pretty and as far from fashionable as possible. Judging this song without the context other reviewers may have, all I hear is some great guitar work from Albert Hammond Jr. and a legitimately explosive chorus. It doesn’t sound like a band past their prime to me, but what do I know?
[8]

Rachel Bowles: This is definitely The Strokes on hard on Guitar Hero or Rock Band. I can really see myself getting high up into the fret, really giving it to the whammy bar and maybe doubling with karaoke on that cathartic chorus. Then straight into Daft Punk’s Aerodynamic followed by an awkward climax from Julian Casablancas. I suppose the fingering was intense.
[4]

Jibril Yassin: With all of its gate-bolted parts and Julian Casablancas’ distorted soul croon the only thing holding it together, “Oblivius” sounds like a mess. It works at sounding unlike previous Strokes comebacks and succeeds by treating the band’s past as a worthy canon for exploration. Suddenly Is This It is no longer the holy standard and all the crazy detours taken in those spotty follow up albums are made worth it by how well the Strokes can pull them together in one five minute suite. 
[7]

Edward Okulicz: Love the various shades of colour in the guitar work, especially the second half, varying from a hazy throb to a vivid light show. Don’t love Julian’s collection of silly voices. The drums also sound like they were constructed from cardboard.
[5]

Katie Gill: A lot of people whose opinions I trust seem to really like this EP. That’s entirely weird because this song does nothing for me. I wouldn’t actively turn it off — I love pretty much anything Casablancas does. But, aside from one really good guitar solo near the middle, this is a solid middle of the LP song: something good enough to go on the album but not good enough to be a lead single. So the fact that it’s released on a four-song EP is just confusing.
[5]