The extent to which New York indie maestros The Strokes transformed the face of guitar music in 2001 is often overlooked. With its inventive guitar lines and audacious arrangements, their first album, Is This It?, showed how spectacularly creative guitar music could be. It was indie pop perfection, blazing a trail for the sort of bands – Bloc Party, Libertines, Kings of Leon – for which the noughties should be remembered.
Given their influence, it is perhaps surprising that the first sortie into solo territory of front man and songwriter Julian Casablancas has not generated more attention. However, The Strokes ship has not been a happy vessel of late, with mixed critical acclaim greeting their most recent, 2006 offering, First Impressions of Planet Earth and a mooted release date of early next year for album four attracting more doubt than excitement.
But take all that away and it is possible to distil the secret of The Strokes’ success to one indisputable truth: Casablancas is a wonderful songwriter. And on Phrazes for the Young he not only proves that he is in no way a spent song-writing force, but that the halcyon days of Is This It? may not be so far away after all.
Strokes aficionados may have had felt more than a twinge of worry that Casablancas would use a solo project to fully indulge his fondness for the massive, intricate arrangements that stretched the waistband of the New York band’s bloated last album. At fourteen songs First Impressions dragged on, but here Casablancas gets the recipe just right. Phrazes for the Young is filled with songs that fizz and sparkle and therefore skips along as an album, from the ravishing chorus of Left & Right in the Dark to the eighties bounce of synth-tastic standout track 11th Dimension.
Casablancas never fails to please with his trademark languid vocal, but what he has achieved is more than a hugely pleasing first solo album. By successfully fusing the raw, gutsy appeal of Strokes albums one and two with an almost electro vibe – while keeping it loaded with the arrangements of album three – is alchemy. If Phrazes for the Young proves one thing, it’s that Casablancas isn’t done yet – and that Strokes album four should be worth waiting for.
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Casablancas will be promoting his new album at a show in Leeds in December, while various members of The Strokes have confirmed that recording of the band’s fourth album should commence in January.