Since going on hiatus in late 2006, all the members of The Strokes save for guitarist Nick Valensi and lead singer Julian Casablancas have already released side projects or solo albums. That isn't to say that Casablancas has just been sitting around getting wasted for the last three years (well, he has, but he's also done some guest work too). He's guested on albums for artists ranging from Queens of the Stone Age to jokesters The Lonely Island and he's even collaborated on a Converse shoe campaign. Now comes his first solo release Phrazes for the Young, an album that while only eight tracks long, is still lengthier in running time than The Strokes' first two albums respectively and is far more musically adventurous than anything off of any Strokes release while still feeling familiar sounding and should appeal to Strokes fans where other Strokes members' side projects haven't.

Phrazes for the Young has an almost New Wave feel to it throughout with its keyboard heavy tone. Tracks such as "Left and Right in the Dark" and "11th Dimension" aren't afraid to make drum machines and keys the backbone of their production. But underneath all those keyboard textures is the familiar Strokes chugging guitar style with Casablancas' monotone, tuned out vocal style that's suited him so well up to this point. Lead track "Out of the Blue" feels like it could have stood next to anything off of The Strokes' 2006 album First Impressions of Earth and the record's best track, the Soul style-heavy "4 Chords of the Apocalypse," finds Valensi and Strokes drummer Fab Moretti joining the proceedings on a track that feels indebted to R & B legend Otis Redding. Phrazes for the Young doesn't live up to the instant Strokes classics that Is This It and Room on Fire were but the nice thing is it doesn't have to. All it does is wet our appetites for when The Strokes finally do return and hopefully that will be real soon.