Julian Casablancas, Phrazes for the Young

Although just eight songs long, Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas' first solo album, Phrazes for the Young, clocks in at a longer total run time than his regular band's debut, almost as if he's shoehorning all of the unused ideas he's had over the past 10 years into every song. The Strokes' signature chiming guitars now churn around keyboards, drum machines, and shifting time signatures.The title, a reference to an Oscar Wilde essay, hints at Casablancas' current perspective as a married, soon-to-be family man ready to impart his collected observations. If this is Casablancas wrapping up a package (with excess paper and string), it will be interesting to hear how The Strokes unpack it and put the pieces inside to use on their next album.

Comments

[Paul]

Casablancas solo debut is an interesting album, and slightly different than I expected. Feels like he tried to fit a ton of ideas in to one album without really following up on any of them. It's forever going to be tough on him to follow up after The Strokes released one of the best albums of the past twenty years with Is This It?. Nice attempt, but definitely comes up short.