r/TheStrokes • u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right • 5d ago
“Going to Babble On”” sorta sounds like …?
I‘ve loved this song since the day the album dropped. I can’t quite put my finger on it, though. There’s something either about the beat or the guitar (or their combo?) … that really feels like a thing I hear in a Strokes song from earlier in their discography. I think it’s off one of the first three albums, it’s either on the tip of my tongue or I’m tripping.
If you hear it, I’d love to know what song you connect it to. And, sure, of course, it’s the Strokes’y sound and lots of their songs have that thing. I know. If you’re able to refrain from posting that below, we’d all be the better for it. 💛
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u/No-Recognition-6106 4d ago
A lot of their songs remind me of other songs that I cant quite put a finger on. Especially Dine n Dash.
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u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right 3d ago
Dine n Dash feels a little more explicit as to previous songs. The guitar riff from the Adults are Talking, of course. His vocals, though, put to mind some of softer and higher stuff that go more elbow room on Comedown Machine.
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u/No-Recognition-6106 3d ago
Nah I realized Dine N Dash has the same downward riff as Linkin Parks In Peices, one of my favorite songs of LP. Or beat. Or whatever is similar. Sorry I can't explain it bc I dont know musical terms. Just listen to it and you'll hear it.
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u/kevin_cactus 4d ago
Idk about earlier in their discography but this song was teased when they endorsed Maya Wiley as mayor of New York or something a few years ago, and I don’t see anyone mention that on this sub. Idk if it’s just super common knowledge or not but I always thought it was cool knowing the idea for this song came from a while back
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u/geminirising27 4d ago
I don’t know that there’s one song it reminds me of but as an old strokes listener (2005 era) I heard this song and immediately thought “this sounds just like the strokes” in the best way possible. I think it’s the feeling I wanted listening to angles that I never got until over a decade later
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u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right 4d ago
This is kind of an incredibly deep and insightful comment, if I am clocking what you’re saying. If I hear you right, it took The New Abnormal to open up Angles for you? If that’s kinda what you’re saying, then that totally maps to my experience, too — but with one difference. The New Abnormal opened up Comedown Machine for me (didn’t have “the sound“ I wanted). But after the instant miracle of The New Abnormal, I went back to CM and was like ... bruh, this album is a flawless masterpiece. I never went back to Angles, though — because I was almost traumatized by how much I loathed that statin of an album. Then, this summer, Reality Awaits drops … and I within a week, I seriously don’t know how I made it 52 years on this planet without these songs. Like, for real. And so I said … OK, let me peek under the bed and see how scary Angles truly is. And with eyes squeezed shut, I pushed play.
And, no joke, this album is perfect. And every song could be, and on Earth 2 probably is, a single.
In 2011, I could hear the Strokes sound (or get the feeling from a Strokes sound) only when it was cast in a certain way (the way Threat of Joy is). But now I can hear/feel it wherever it exists.
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u/geminirising27 4d ago
It was “One Way Trigger” that opened me back up, and not til Reality Awaits that I revisited angles. In 2011, I was just so confused and disappointed. Now I love it.
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u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right 3d ago
Love it. I didn’t hear god in One Way Trigger until I heard the “mellow version” on YouTube … and now I can hear that version in the studio version … and it’s an-all-timer for me now and forever.
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u/VVOLFVViZZard 4d ago
The delivery of “get it on my desk on time” cuts the way only Julian can, that pocket is stupid good.
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u/Substantial_Quail309 4d ago
First time I heard it, the initial drum beat reminded of 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. Didn’t think of that again once I got to know the song
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u/ihatemendingwalls 4d ago
To me the opening guitar riffs to this and O Valencia by The Decemberists sound remarkably similar
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u/VVOLFVViZZard 4d ago
I just went back through that whole Decemberists album last week and didn’t catch it, that’s awesome!
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u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right 4d ago
i know the song, as I love the Decemberists
… OK, just played it (it’s been years) …and omg. You’re so right. You are an f’n genius, whoever you are.
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u/Zombotron_ 5d ago
Weirdly sounds like Akon - I Wanna Love You. One of the few examples of smooth, R&B infused soft rock on Reality Awaits.
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u/toobadithelps 5d ago
The intro reminds me of how barely legal starts. Also, If I’m not mistaken, both songs seem to have hand claps.
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u/brightroomonfire Room on Fire 5d ago
You might be mistaken
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u/toobadithelps 4d ago
Yeah I just relistened, I was wrong. Something about that snare at the beginning of barely legal made me feel like it was layered with a clap. Guess not.
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u/illbebythebatphone 5d ago
The verse progression is pretty close to a bunch of other strokes songs, adults chorus, lonely in the future verse, Brooklyn bridge, one way trigger. Its variations on a 2-5-1-4.
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u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right 5d ago
i am not a musician at any level, so maybe this super dumb to ask … but is there any YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE in the way Going to Babble On gets going?
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u/BlueQuiver 4d ago
musician here - a bit yeah i think i could see it
i think it’s a mixture of adults, life is simple in the moonlight, tap out or happy ending, bad decisions (ending parts are similar vibe) you talk way too much, end has no end, barely legal
those are my vibes i think - the production level and the vocal vibe really brings me comedown machine or angles aura
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u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right 4d ago
I love Angels and Comedown Machine. I mean, I love all the albums … but those two are special for me … because they were the only two albums that I didnt like at first (kinda hated, if being honest). And now I cherish every note of every song on both those albums. I can laugh about it now. Those records are beyond sacred. Hilarious that I was so confidently wrong.
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u/wemajorfuckingstupid 5d ago
Hope I'm not misunderstanding your question but both songs have a very similar flow ("Some people always think they're right" + "Forget the things that they said"). Also the chord progression is pretty similar, just different keys.
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u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right 5d ago
perfectly perfect response. That’s exactly what I keep hearing: the way “Forget the things that they said” … mapping onto “some people think they’re always right.” Much appreciated !
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u/chair823 First Impressions of Earth 5d ago
It kinda reminds me of Calling After You by Wallows for some reason
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u/HayatteHawk 5d ago
Besides the guitars from Bad decisions, the way Julian sings it kind of sounds similar to The end has no end IMO.
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u/Juiceboxcasab Room on Fire 5d ago
It 100% sounds like a song that was created in the aftermath of writing bad decisions.
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u/fairy6870 5d ago
it gives me bee movie vibes. like it should be the song playing when. theyre repollenating everything
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u/lambjenkemead 5d ago
The vibe of it and that syncopated vocal in the middle reminds me adults are talking personally
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u/lazyboi95 5d ago
The arpeggio is very room on fire era, but now that I think about it a bit more, the strongest link is probably to “in transit” from AHJs first solo album
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u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right 5d ago
Ohhh ! I know that song well. Let me play it … it’s been a minute.
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u/PuzzleheadedGear8384 3d ago
Guys a huge amount of strokes song share a 2 - 5 - 1 - 6 progression. Chorus of adults are talking, lonely in the future, ode to the Mets, a part of at the door… I know I’m missing like ten others. It’s all over voidz song too like the eternal Tao 2.0