After touring in support of First Impressions of Earth, the Strokes went on an extended hiatus in 2007[2] and then regrouped two years later to begin writing new material for a fourth album.

[3] The album took more than two years to materialize, with the band recording live demos of 18 songs before heading into Avatar Studios in New York with producer Joe Chiccarelli, but without frontman Julian Casablancas.

[4] Not long after recording began, however, the band became frustrated with both Chiccarelli's reserved production style and Casablancas' absence.

Only one song from these recording sessions, "Life Is Simple in the Moonlight", remained in its original form on the album's track listing.

The rest of the songs were either scrapped or reworked by the band with engineer Gus Oberg at guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.'s home studio in Port Jervis, Upstate New York.

[7] Hammond's drug abuse and resulting rehab — stemming from his breakup with model Agyness Deyn — was another hurdle the band faced during the album's production, as he missed early recording sessions.

[8] Speaking to Zane Lowe, Nikolai Fraiture stated that he felt Angles would be "a return to the basics", suggesting the songs would be of similar style to their acclaimed 2001 debut record, Is This It.

A live version of the track, recorded during an April 1, 2011 concert at Madison Square Garden and featuring Elvis Costello, was made available as the single's accompanying B-side.

[12][deprecated source] Media response to Angles was generally favorable; aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalized rating of 71, based on 41 reviews.

[13] In his four-star review, David Fricke of Rolling Stone explained that the record was "worth the wait", and summed it up as "the first step away from the sound of their instant-classic debut.

"[25] Claire Suddath of Time called the album "a 10 song exercise in rock precision,"[26] and Mikael Wood of Spin proclaimed that it "reminds you why they were so irresistible in the first place".