Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For the Young

The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas propels his band’s prosperous legacy in the decade with his solo debut Phrazes For the Young. And by unfolding these tracks, you are likely to find the strong core that The Strokes coined when they were about to publicize their material at first. Studying the songwriting methods of Julian’s bandmates who apparentlywould love to go it alone once in a while, I found them four souls (not counting Nick Valenci for he didn't come up with a solo thing surprisingly) reincarnated as one. Albert Hammond Jr. could not refrain from being the Strokes' rhythm guitarist on his two solo works and last year the band’s drummer Fabrizio Moretti joined Little Joy for one of the tastiest lo-fi Holiday albums of the year (it become our #3 favorite album of 2008), but even Little Joy’s easy culture reminded us of Moretti’s original band. Bassist Nikolai Fraiture also went solo with Nickel Eye, same in the end.

Casablancas has tried hard but not enough for his record to step a little further from Strokes’ vintage nature (not so fast! this is not a rebuke). Therefore he has used various electronic elements and has lengthened his song durations just to give you a diverse taste. Eventually, Phrazes For the Young has elevated from garage rock 60s Strokes to synth-80s Strokes with a paletteful of game arcadish vibrations. So, for all the folks who had missed the great band since their last studio album 2006’s First Impressions of Earth, Julian going solo, instead of being a guest vocalist on numerous works ever since anything from his main band, is rather good news.

Although the record sees only 8 tracks in its catalog, it runs for approximately 40 minutes. It has been produced by Jason Leder (Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis) with an additional production by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk). Casablancas, instead of making minimal efforts on each song has tried to scatter his songwriting talents across each single song. As a result the songs sound monotonous in a shallow glance. But this very feature can be delightful when you see him in almost each possible form on a vibrant and new wave track as exquisite as “Left & Right In the Dark”, the song stands on its own and Casablancas’ potent and juicy poetry makes it possibly the best track found on the album. “11th Dimension” was the first single from the album and the record also earns moderate beauty when it comes to more down-tempo tunes such as “5 Chords of the Apocalypse” and “Glass” or even the tribal charmer of the closing "Tourist".

Julian slyly deviates from his instruments growing noisy and lousy in the first place and with a little help from his unhurried soul and proper real-life depictions formed in words, lets his music flow and cross your ears without a disturbing startling. That’s where Phrazes hits the right keys on our brain and hopefully avoids a handful of stereotypes.

[mp3] Julian Casablancas "Left & Right In the Dark"

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