“Phrazes,” a Confusing New Phase for Strokes’ Singer

Julian Casablancas, lead singer of the Strokes and leather jacket enthusiast, lost his cool. It may have happened when his popular group splintered into a collection of guitar-focused side projects or when he married a few years ago. But Phrazes for the Young, Casablancas’ debut solo album, lacks the detached breeziness of the singer’s previous work.

This is only natural. Hip, young angst has nothing to do but cool down, from Catullus to Bob Dylan to Kanye West (impending). Hindsight strips hotshot posturing down to what it is, and Casablancas couldn’t stay mad forever.

As its title suggests, Phrazes for the Young is nothing if not self-aware. The album is literally comforting advice for young people set to upbeat music. Maybe the 31-year-old Casablancas has assumed the elder statesman role a bit prematurely, but it’s an interesting change in tone.

So Phrazes is a warning to arrogant young bucks, but more importantly, the album is an acknowledgement of weakness. “Yes, I know I’m goin’ to Hell in a leather jacket,” he sings on “Out of the Blue,” one of the album’s best songs.

The singer no longer buries his threats in distortion (“Oh, just take it or leave it,” he sneered in 2001). They’ve all been replaced with glossy self-help “phrazes” like “your faith has got to be stronger than your fear,” from lead single “11^th Dimension.”

That song and most of the others buzz with clever ideas and sounds: drum machine click-pops with trumpets with outdated synthesizers with genre songwriting. Amongst it all are joyful melodies that seem to stick to the roof of your mouth.

But even at a mere eight songs, Phrazes is full of dead ends. “Ludlow St.” is a country ballad with drum machines and it’s about as successful as one would expect it to be. The real clunker is “Glass,” an overstretched and hackneyed piece of radio fodder Casablancas probably wrote in his sleep.

For this reason, Phrazes feels more like a collection of one-offs than a proper album. The singer has grown confident in his serene new worldview but struggles to sell those ideals without sounding like Dr. Phil.

If there’s a unifying theme, it’s that middle age is confusing. So is “cool.”