The time has come. The long-awaited album from the Strokes hasfinally arrived.

It should have been placed in a bonfire and burned.

This album is the most annoying excuse for a coaster to comealong in a long time. It’s the kind of album you listen tomore than once in hopes of finding something good to say about it.No luck.

As a follow-up to the superbly superior “Is ThisIt,” “Room of Fire” is a sophomore musicaldisaster with 11 tracks of musical suicide. At this rate, hopefullythe trust fund babies from New York City won’t be around muchlonger. Maybe they can go back to living off their parents’millions and keep out of the limelight forever.

Back to the album itself, the first four lines to the firsttrack “Whatever Happened” are, “I wanna beforgotten.” Well, frontman Julian Casablancas and the rest ofthe band very well should be.

Each song is about two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half minuteslong. I feel the band tried way too hard to duplicate the successof “Is This It,” constituting the album’s and thegroup’s worst problem.

Four chord progressions, two-note bass lines and distortedvocals are really getting old. These guys said their new albumwould be a bigger step from their frosh release. Besides addingpseudo-disco drumbeats, some synthesizer and the occasionalhandclap or finger snap, the only significant difference from thefirst album is that the songs aren’t the least bitcatchy.

In track eight, “Under Control,” Casablancasredundantly repeats that he doesn’t want to waste my time andthat he doesn’t want to change my mind.

Well, thanks for the courteous thought, but it’s too lateat this point; there are only three songs left on the album and Iam sick.

“Room on Fire” was written for love-struck teenagerswho are still not through with puberty. Soon, the Strokes will bethrown onto covers of Teen and Tigerbeat magazines for 13-year-oldteenage girls to drool over. But I don’t know ifthey’ll be doing Gap ads anytime soon: they’re too coolfor that.

When all is said and done, this album is trash. It does notdeserve to be listened to and any self-respecting music lover knowsthat these guys are phony, pop icon, fashion gurus who spend all oftheir time getting wasted and using their parents’ money togain momentum within the music industry.

If you thoroughly enjoyed “Is This It,” make”It” it.