It's not totally clear why the Strokes make albums, is it? They don't seem to enjoy it much, and they aren't exactly bursting with innovative musical ideas that demand to be let loose. Yet the records aren't worthless – far from it. Comedown Machine is basically a solo trip for singer Julian Casablancas, showing yet again how much he respects Eighties New Wave. Why is Comedown Machine an official Strokes album instead of another Casablancas solo album? Only a Stroke could tell you. 

Eighties synth-pop is always a stretch for this guy, given that his songwriting tends to be narrow with melody and clunky with beats. He begins strong in "Tap Out," a ­DeBarge tribute with a cheese-guitar solo straight out of Lionel Richie's "Running With the Night." "One Way Trigger" ineptly rips A-ha, and "80's Comedown Machine" aims for the softer side of Howard Jones. "Welcome to Japan" is merely the most obvious of the many Duran Duran-indebted moments. (Great question, too: "What kind of asshole drives a Lotus?") But ballads like "Chances" prove he still can't sing falsetto. And just to remind you of his pretensions, he ends with a painful Tom Waits parody, although Waits would get a 1D tattoo before he'd resort to a song title like "Call It Fate, Call It Karma."

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."