The Strokes: Angles

I NEVER THOUGHT I'd be making this statement about a Strokes record, but the New York band's fourth album is packed with surprises. Sure, the defining formal fundaments remain: the highly stylized, hermetic sound; the obsessively vacuum-packed rhythm tracks of drummer Fab Moretti and bassist Nikolai Fraiture; the meticulous guitar interplay of Nick Valenzi and Albert Hammond Jr.; Julian Casablancas' detached, vampire-nocturnal vocals. But atop this aural/stylistic architecture, the band proceeds to toss one lively curveball after another, resulting in an engagingly eclectic, improbably upbeat stack of tracks.