History has taught us that dismantling the elements making important bands greater than the sum of their parts can be dangerous. Certainly, this ruling seems borne out by The Strokes, whose individual members have thus far seriously underwhelmed with their solo escapades.
Many of us had wondered whether The Strokes apparently indefinite hiatus would prompt their singer JULIAN CASABLANCAS into trying his hand at the solo thang. He is, after all, the band's most high profile member and the one most likely to get caught in the spotlight in a post-Strokes world. He says mischievously.
Anyway, let's quit surmising and cut to the chase. Taken from his debut solo album ('Phrazes for the Young' due later this month), '11th Dimension' turns out to be the first really notable extracurricular Strokes activity. It doesn't really sound anything like them, but that's just fine. Instead, it inhabits a grandeur-fuelled, keyboard-swathed landscape with hints of New Order and The Pet Shop Boys meeting up some biting, angular guitars at the crossroads at midnight. It's also got the advantage of having Julian's acerbic drawl to top and tail it in the charisma stakes and it's stuffed with the sort of tuneful panache essential to heading the naysayers off at the pass.
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So that's Mr. Casablancas off the blocks in style. Over to you, Nick Valensi.
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