The Strokes - 'Angles' (Rough Trade) Released: 21/03/2011

This is it. Five years we've been waiting. Patiently, letting the founders of the most important band of a generation do their own thing - some solo records, some marriages, some fallings out, some making up, and finally some music making. But has the good ship Strokes sailed? Did the five-piece who changed the musical landscape in 2001 with 'Is This It' wait too long to come back? Importantly, are The Strokes still relevant?

Yes. Yes. Yes. 'Angles' is a band at a crossroads, that's for sure. Since news spread of the fourth release last year, there have been a haul of conflicting interviews with band members discussing divisions in the band, frontman Julian Casablancas posting bizarre fake album covers on Twitter and the almost unbearable mystery surrounding whether the band can even stand to be in the same room as each other, has created quite the hype. Rock critics have spent the free months they've had due to the lack of any real decent indie music worth reviewing, sharpening the keys on their laptop to spell out 'predictable'.

Well 'Angles' is anything but predictable. They took one look at that route and decided to not only steer clear of it, but to reverse and do almost the exact opposite of what we've come to know as 'The Strokes sound'. Opener 'Machu Picchu' is rooted in reggae, yes reggae – I told you they were going down a different path. It even takes a while to realise you're listening to the New Yorkers. But then Julian's synthesized voice (all his - watch them live) and Nick Valensi's choppy rock guitars drop, and by the first chorus you're all theirs, blindly following the magical mystery tour 'Angles' takes you on.

First single 'Under Cover of Darkness' brings us back to the sound that made us fall in love with them. There is a new edge to the style, though, and this is already a classic. The snappy guitar and drums, courtesy of Fab Moretti, are still there, but a ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ playfulness has crept in. Surely they can't be having fun if stories of misery in the studio are to be believed? "Everybody's been singing the same song for ten years" - Julian's not lost any of that biting wit then.  Maybe this was a pleasure to create after all.

Of all the solo projects in the hiatus, Julian's work is most prominent on 'Angles'. 'Two Kinds of Happiness' could have been a work in progress from his 2010 'Phrazes For The Young' with its 1980s intro. His voice ranges from David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen to Freddie Mercury in a verse – all deliberate, I'm sure.

'You're So Right' is in a word – mental. The opening "Tell me what happened" is eerily similar to 'River of Break Lights' from 'Phrazes...', with its repeated lyrics and the chorus, with the help of a distorted vocoder, echos The Faint's dark electro-metal style with Julian snarling "I don't want to fight." One of The Strokes' most unique tracks by a mile. The band must have gone off and listened to art-rockers Health for the past five years and decided that almost out of key, Radiohead-esque baffling wonderment is the way forward. Sure to be a live highlight when the band tour later this summer.

'Taken for a Fool' and 'Games' aren't bad songs, not even close - with 'Games's dancier vibe coming from Nikolai Fraiture's funky bass - but almost get lost in an album of frantic new genres. Relationship ballad 'Call Me Back' sees Julian at his most tender, singing “I look for you, and you look away.”

'Metabolism' has the most similarities with 'First Impressions of Earth' with Julian singing "I want to be somebody like you." But if it's pop hooks that you want, then it's pop hooks you shall have. 'Gratisfaction' could have been on the chopping room floor of 'Is This It'. Who knows, maybe it was. Forming a genre almost entirely on Tom Petty's jaunty 'American Girl' single, the legends do momentarily return to their debut’s sound - with a little Queen bombast mixed in.

Closing ‘Angles’ with the slower paced ‘Life is Simple in the Moonlight’, The Strokes round off the comeback of the year, nay decade, with a far more mature, edgy and at times, totally new sound. They’ve only gone and reinvented genres again. There is a distinct 1980s flavour to the fourth release, and who knows whether or not it was recorded separately, but it works. The break has fuelled a desire in the five friends to create something fresh, exciting and theirs. Other bands may take the easy option and go over old ground, but not The Strokes. They’re different. They’re a once in a lifetime band. And ‘Angles’ is proof that The Strokes are as important as ever.

MORE: The Coolest Band On Earth: The Strokes Are Back.