Daily Loaf

Meet NYC resident and frontman of The Strokes, Julian Casablancas. On his solo debut, Phrazes For The Young, he has replaced all your expectations with synths straight out of 1984. Listen closely. Pop waves too polished to be considered prog echo shades of Duran Duran’s “Rio,” Madonna’s “Borderline” and “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince. Within this palette of ’80s-style synths, a secretly danceable album bubbles up. Nagging speculation about how the songs would sound if guitars replaced the shiny textures, or if some feedback and grime were swapped for the forlorn tropical vibe glistening across “11^th Dimension” and “Glass,” is senseless and unnecessary, for solo albums serve as outlets to indulge those musical urges normally suppressed by a group dynamic.

Take “4 Chords of the Apocalypse.” The song’s slowed-down tempo makes it feel really out of place to Strokes fans, a knee jerk reaction and possible obstacle for those expecting another “Last Nite” because the track celebrates the despondency of Otis Redding and Solomon Burke-era soul, and not the dissonance and recklessness of CBGB. The following track, “Ludlow St.,” begins as an exotic interlude reminiscent of the Apocalypse Now Soundtrack (fit for Martin Sheen’s stagger down a dark hallway toward madness and Marlon Brando), then abruptly turns into a country folk ditty straight from Chinatown or The Bowery, with lyrics that rejoice in the acceptance one finds at the bottom of a bottle when the rest of the world offers up rejection. Yet even at the album’s most formulaic instances, Phrazes For The Young reveals layers of musical complexity — inventive cascades of drum machine beats, scampers of guitars — that become more pronounced after each listen.

In many cases, the dense and bloated album changes and bounces and moves around quickly, slipping across pop and soul spectrums within a few seconds, overlapping and folding decades into eight tracks that run just under 40 minutes. Between a catchy Spanish guitar refrain and a synth loop (which makes you wonder who came up with all the best hooks on the Strokes’ second album, Room On Fire), the final track, “Tourist,” distinguishes Casablancas’ globetrotting efforts across pop and R&B. Right before the song climaxes with a flourish of brass horns, Casablancas sings, “Some will bet against you / Try even to prevent you / But not many can stop you man / If you got a perfect plan,” and displays the confidence gained from a solo album that opened with lyrics of resounding uncertainty: “Somewhere along the way, my hopefulness turned to sadness.” (Out now on RCA)

Check out “11th Dimension,” the first single released off Phrazes For The Young

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