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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Phrazes For The Young
EMAILPRINTby Julian Casablancas
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 35 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: RCA
Release Date: 03 November 2009
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Indie
Summary
This is the solo debut for the Strokes lead singer.
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Phoenix
At the end, after his inevitable untimely death, all anyone will care about will be the stately grandeur of the opening (and closing) music coupled with the star’s eternal blank stare: unknowable, unfathomable, and ultimately tragic. We’ll have to wait for the movie; fortunately the soundtrack is already here.
Read Full Review >Billboard.com
Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas steps out with his debut solo album, Phrazes for the Young, and dynamically weaves '80s techno-pop with psychedelic punk, while also reinventing his usual monochromatic croon.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Julian Casablancas emerges with this engagingly odd collection of songs. [Nov 2009, p.92]
NOW Magazine
The album adheres to a less-is-best philosophy, and the songs sound effortless. It’s simple, straightforward and immediate, just like the first Strokes album.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
With a new Strokes album looking less likely by the day, I’m thankful for this--turns out Casablancas solo is just as good.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
Phrazes for the Young blusters its way through eight songs full of killer hooks and choruses, and then? Well, it’s gone, as fun and fleeting as a carnival ride that’s just a memory a few hours later.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
Overall, Phrazes For The Young is a successful departure from The Strokes' straightforward brawn, but it's not as different as it's been billed.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
It may not have the sugar rush immediacy of the Strokes, and at times it's downright indulgent, but Phrazes for the Young shows that Casablancas has more than enough ideas for several albums on his own and with his band--and perhaps most importantly, he sounds more enthused about making music on it than he has since "Is This It."
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
Recorded under the radar with producer Jason Lader and Bright Eyes collaborator Mike Mogis, it’s a strange little album, just eight songs long but deceptively dense with ideas.
Read Full Review >Spin
The effect is more Tokyo neon than Lower East Side leather. Surprisingly, the sonic leap forward intensifies Casablancas' greatest gift--melody.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Ultimately, Phrazes For The Young testifies that the qualities that made Julian Casablancas so noteworthy in 2001 remain in place, just a little more difficult to predict.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
It is overarchingly ambitious for a solo debut, and despite Casablancas’ pre-release claims that this was going to be some classico-synth detour straight out the asshole of Tattooine, the album rarely, rarely stumbles into po-mo theatrics.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Burdened with the responsibility of assuring the future of rock at the beginning of this decade, Casablancas now looks like he could have a decent future of his own.
Read Full Review >Hot Press
Strokes frontman ditches leather jacket, reinvents self as DIY Gary Numan.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
Phrazes represents a creative departure for Casablancas and another milestone for his band--marking a point where they've produced more quality albums by themselves than as a group.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
In the end, deliberately(?) tinny tracks such as 'Glass' sound like sketches in search of a full band. Hopefully, said band will soon oblige.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
A few songs have the old leather-jacket kick, but things get weirder as he explores alienation from a Lower East Side he once ruled.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Whenever Casablancas strains for seriousness, the album loses focus....When he concentrates on making pop music, however, Phrazes for the Young is a blast.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
'Ludow St' is lyrically smart, musically ambitious, more than any other track on Phrazes, it makes you wonder, if not regret, why the Strokes themselves never pushed the boat out this far. For that reason alone, it was worth Casablancas making this intriguing if imperfect record. [Nov 2009, p.98]
Pitchfork
The irony is that Phrazes for the Young is so smoothed over--nearly all of Casablancas' trademark vocal roughness is airbrushed into oblivion--it instantly sounds like a plexiglass-covered museum piece.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune
With the Strokes, Casablancas exploits the tension between his behind-the-beat, just-woke-up vocals and the band’s hurtling rhythms. On Phrazes, the slower-moving tempos match the unhurried pace of his distinctive croon, and the melodies and arrangements aren’t strong enough to make up for the loss in urgency.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
If it were anyone else, this record would be fine. Solid. Entertaining. But it's not anyone else--Julian Casablancas, lead singer of The Strokes. As such, you look for more and expect to tune in to find Julian doing the same.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
It's not all awful, and it's certainly not Gene Simmons doing "When You Wish Upon A Star," but it sure ain't the Strokes, either.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
There are moments which hint at Casablancas’ underlying skill as a writer on Phrazes, but there’s such a ruinous deployment of disparate ideas that they never form a cogent whole.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
