Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young
By Andrew P Street
You know how most of the time when someone does a solo album
you find yourself realising just how much the rest of the band bring to the
table? That's certainly true on 'Out Of The Blue', the opening song on Julian
Casablancas' Phrazes for the Young,
which is the best Strokes song in ages and is probably, therefore, giving his
bandmates some sleepless nights. And then, just when you think "Ah, OK then:
he's a one-trick pony who can only write Strokes-alike material" he follows it
with 'Left & Right in the Dark', which sounds like down-market Phoenix as recreated on
a Casio (dig those preset drum machine fills!), bolstered
with guitar stabs straight out of A Flock Of Seagulls' classic 'I Ran'.
The 80s
disco revival continues on first single '11th Dimension' where a pure Strokes
chug-the-guitar-16-to-the-bar chorus is welded to some adorably cut-price New
Order. It's cute enough to excuse the thriftshop cod-soul of '4 Chords Of
The Apocalypse', while 'River of Brakelights' is Muse on a budget – but once the
space-age country of 'Ludlow St' appears, it suddenly becomes clear: Casablancas
is the new Beck. Like Mr Hansen's Mellow Gold-to-Midnite Vultures period, Phrazes… sounds like the work of a man
sending cryptic, heavily-coded messages via an album made with all of the instruments he has within an arms' reach. Solo album? What's the name of this guy's band again?
You've read what we think. Now tell us what you think.