I can’t stress this enough, solo albums are almost always a terrible idea, especially when your entire professional identity has been linked to a relatively successful band.
Of course none of that seemed to stop Julian Casablancas from taking the inevitable leap of faith into Synth Pop mediocrity with the grammatically challenged Phrazes for the Young.
A routinely somber Casablancas trades in his melancholy for New Wave effervescence on the hopelessly optimistic “11th Dimension”, which exists on an alternate plane where nothing is as it seems, “We’re so quick to point out our own flaws in others/Complicated, man was on the wings of robots.”
“River of Brakelights” is one of a handful of tracks that could actually pass for a discarded Strokes B-side, but much like every other song on the album its potential is ultimately drowned out by Mike Mogis’ overproduction.
