Strokes’ Phrazes of the Young Review Roundup

Strokes‘ leading man Julian Casablancas is set to release his debut album Phrazes for the Young during the beginning of November and we have some early reviews; which don’t sound too good. Casablancas worked with producer Jason Lader on this project, as well as Bright Eyes/Monsters of Folk musician Mike Mogis.

Does Phrazes for the Young live up to critics expectations? Take a look at our review round-up.

The sound:

• Listening to the glittery synthesizers and over-layered drum machines that putter around Casablancas’ flat, deflated voice is almost depressing… The song sounds more like a zombification than a resurrection. [NYU News]
• Left & Right in the Dark undergoes a thrilling leap from hipster torpor to his most engaged turn since Juicebox, with its FM-friendly exhortation to “wake up, wake up. [BBC]
• “Ludlow St’ is a plain weird country song, complete with banjo, ‘Glass’ a trip-hop number, while ‘Tourist’ has an eastern feel, complete with brass section. Only once does the record falter, on the jarring ‘River Of Brake Lights’, when all these disparate elements sound, well, disparate. [State]

The lyrics:

• Banal lyrics, such as “I take you shopping/I take you da-a-a-ancing” and “It’s more important to be nice/than to be wise,” are painful to the ears.” [NYU News]
• There are some lazy moments, particularly in the lyrics, which too often fall back on preening snottiness and circular wordplay; the choruses on several songs resort to circling, witless rearrangements of their words, a game of Three-card Monte that gets less and less impressive.”  [Slant Magazine]
• The bleepy keyboard intro to ‘Out Of The Blue’ (and how apt is that title?) sets the tone, before a driving rhythm not that dissimilar to ‘Hard To Explain’ kicks in. The “I know I’m going to hell in a leather jacket” lyric might suggest a sense of self-loathing but in reality Casablancas sounds happy and relaxed, for once not burying his vocal amongst a wall of effects. [State]

Creativity:

• With only the album opener, ‘Out Of The Blue’ recalling his other band, and as The Strokes’ main songwriter and tactician, there would be no shame in things being Strokes-like, but Casablancas has pushed the boat out on creativity here. [Clash Music]
• It’s a strange little album, just eight songs long but deceptively dense with ideas. [NME]

On the overall tone:

• With his bandmates setting the bar admirably high in their own projects, Casablancas can hold his head high when he next heads into the studio with his colleagues, as ‘Phrazes For The Young’ easily holds its own amongst not only his bandmates’ albums, but The Strokes output proper. [Clash Music]
• It’s not awful by any means but just doesn’t quite work. In fact, though, its inclusion makes the rest of the record seem even more special – a reminder that this could have been a total disaster, even a final nail in the Strokes’ coffin. As it is it breathes new life into our expectations for that fourth Strokes record, expectations that they may not be able to meet but at least we’ll be listening. [State]
• Ultimately, Phrazes…testifies that the qualities that made Julian Casablancas so noteworthy in 2001 remain in place, just a little more difficult to predict. It’s a marathon, not a sprint — Casablancas looks like he’s in for a long haul. [Uncut Magazine]

So far some praise Casablancas’ for changing things up a bit and not sticking to the Strokes-sound, while others just think Phazes for the Young is “painful to the ears.” Phazes for the Young hits stores in less than two-weeks on November 3rd.

What are you expectations for Phazes of the Young?