Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young

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?

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