Julian Casablancas: Albums Ranked Worst To Best

It has been two whole years since I first posted on this blog, and in an effort to celebrate the anniversary I wanted to do something commemorative. After some extensive pondering and a false start to one project I'm now saving for a later date, I decided what to do. My very first post was a recap of 5 albums I wanted to highlight that came out in March, and back then I placed them in order of preference. My favourite was Virtue, the second studio album by Julian Casablancas's second band The Voidz, and I released a full review for it the following day. You're more likely to have heard of Julian due to his first band The Strokes, one of the the most notable indie acts of the 21st century. Incidentally, their new album comes out in just three days, so it all just felt right to do this.

I've spent more than enough time prefacing this, and really the concept of this isn't all that hard to understand, so just know that all 5 of The Strokes' albums, both of The Voidz' and Julian's solo album are all applicable for this list. Finally, I just wanted to say that this is all my opinion, so if your favourite album isn't at the top, please don't be offended. Here we go...

8

"First Impressions of Earth"
The Strokes

3rd January 2006

On The Strokes' third album, things started to fall apart. Although many people would argue in favour of this album's strong 1-2-3 punch when it comes to the opening tracks, I personally think it's a point people make as compensation for how lacklustre the rest of the album is, these first songs boasting the highest concentration within the album. As much as I love the grumbling "Juicebox", I find the album's first track "You Only Live Once" to be frustratingly overrated as a strong single that when compared with the band's other staples falls short due to how derivative of the first two albums it was. Elsewhere, the stolid "Vision of Division" is an example of the band excelling in the heavier department whilst "Ize of the World" serves as a juicy preview of Julian's later, more experimental direction with The Voidz. 

Unfortunately, much of the rest of this album falls flat on its face when attempting to break out of The Strokes mold, and the bulk of songs end up occupying a heavy but sluggish rock'n'roll sound (Killing Lies) or a softer brand of dreary melancholy (Red Light). Also, since it's a fan favourite, I'm afraid I feel obliged to address my opinions on the melatron-lead "Ask Me Anything". Sorry, but the muddy mix and minimalism don't do it for me here, in spite of the emotion.

5/10

Best Tracks: Razorblade; Vision of Division; Ize of the World; Juicebox
Worst Tracks: 15 Minutes; Fear of Sleep; Killing Lies; Red Light; Ask Me Anything

7

"Comedown Machine"
The Strokes

26th March 2013

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: this does not work well as a cohesive album due to how each song functions as an individual sonic experiment. Whether the album feels incomplete due to the fragmented nature of all these songs or due to the band not putting their all into the sound is up for you to decide, but when I'm listening to this all I can hear is a band trying to escape the legacy they wrote themself into with their first two albums. At times this desperation leads to moments of brilliance, but whilst First Impressions boasted a few great songs straddled between overwhelming mediocrity, on Comedown Machine the struggle seems to be getting any of the songs to a point of distinct quality. It's like the band's unwillingness to commit to any one sound resulted in a varied collection of songs that all offer something, just not very much of that something.

That said, this album still has its fair share of great moments, from the nocturnal verses of opener "Tap Out" to the quippy lyrics of "Welcome To Japan", a song that perfectly illustrates the struggle between the kooky and the nonsensical that Julian seemed to have when writing the lyrics for this album, often solving his problems by offering up an underweight chorus that pulled from pop songs of the 80s and 90s. Predominantly, this doesn't work out. Overall, I understand people who have high opinions of this album just as I do those who hate it, and I land somewhere in the middle. 

6/10

Best Tracks: 50/50; One Way Trigger; Welcome To Japan; Partners In Crime 
Worst Tracks: Call It Fate, Call It Karma; All The Time; Slow Animals; Chances

6

"Phrazes for the Young"
Julian Casablancas

3rd November 2009

Julian's first and currently only solo project, this is a reasonably contentious release in the Casablancas catalogue for some understandable reasons. For fans patiently awaiting new music after 2006's underwhelming First Impressions, it would be nearly four years later that this would mark the first post-Strokes work Julian had done. Landing somewhere between the realms of pretentious singer-songwriter folk and sci-fi synthpop, this can definitely be a confusing album that strikes an odd chord. For one, Julian's signature writing style had all but disappeared in place of a newfound, world-weary stand that introduced the side of Julian later developed with The Voidz.

For me, each track is either an utter miss or a solid hit, often aiming for a grounded and cautionary tale that's swept away by Julian pretentiousness. There's a failed attempt at a country ballad with "Ludlow St." just one track before the experimental "River of Brakelights", a song that convinces me to ignore the worst moments of the record and keep striving for a new solo album from Julian. At the end of the day, if he ever chooses to follow this up, I hope it's more focused and concise than this album, or more developed and fleshed out. This is good, but far from his best.

7/10

Best Tracks: Glass; River of Brakelights; Tourist; 11th Dimension; Out of the Blue

Worst Tracks: Ludlow St.; Left & Right in the Dark

5

"Tyranny"
The Voidz

23rd September 2014

Yet another divisive record, the transition from the peppy indie disco of The Strokes' Comedown Machine was followed up by the first release from Julian's alternate band The Voidz and from the opening track "Take Me In Your Army" you're confronted by a much darker, more percussion-focused and blocky direction that saw Julian finally able to shake loose the baggage of The Strokes' haunting legacy and let him just do what he wanted with fellow musicians who wanted to shake things up. The result? This is Julian's least accessible work that showcases a band diving headfirst into synth punk for a gloriously epic album that just feels massive with the towering walls of guitars and synths propelling the more unusual direction forward and daring you to keep listening.

The eleven minute "Human Sadness" is perhaps the make-or-break point, because if you can get on board with the long buildup and eventual chaos then you can get on board with the rest of the album. It's confrontational, an album meant to point out the flaws in our world with no filter. What keeps it from a place among the greats is the frustratingly overlong runtime and a lack of the tightness and control needed to trim this album down to the essentials.

7.5/10

Best Tracks: Human Sadness; Crunch Punch; Father Electricity; Where No Eagles Fly; Dare I Care

Worst Tracks: Off To War; Xerox

4

"Angles"
The Strokes

22nd March 2011

I feel like this is the album that receives the most unwarranted hate from The Strokes' fanbase, presumably due to the continued deviation from their signature sound that saw the band borrowing from the 80s before the rest of the 2010s decade perceived that to be trendy. For me, this is the best the band have been since their glory days and I'll defend almost every song on here for being a whole lot of fun without needing to adhere to the classic sound of the band or turn to a host of underwhelming other styles to compensate for the lack of energy the band had (*cough* Comedown Machine *cough*).

What's more, as I look through the tracklist, these are pretty much all the pinnacle of indie disco condensed into one album. Strutting between groovy offerings of Phoenix-esque synthpop to the blissfully retro guitar passages indicative of bands like The Smiths, this is full of top-notch indie music practically gift wrapped in order for Strokes fans in one 10 track package. There's the peculiar rhythms of "Machu Picchu" to the tearful "Life Is Simple In The Moonlight", both phenomenal examples of what the band are capable of outside of their beloved and over-protected signature sound. Oh yeah and, I like "Call Me Back". I seem to be in the minority there.

8/10

Best Tracks: Machu Picchu; Metabolism; Gratisfaction; Taken For A Fool; Life Is Simple In The Moonlight; Under Cover Of Darkness
Worst Tracks: Games; Two Kinds Of Happiness

3

"Room On Fire"

The Strokes

28th October 2003

For as much as people slate this as simply Is This It's slightly less interesting twin, a little too derivative to be considered their best album and yet too much of a classic to ever fall out of a "true fan's" Top 2 albums from this band, Room On Fire used to be my favourite of the two albums. Why was this? Well, it has a lot to do with the superior grooves on this album that give the album a more danceable feel, combined with the improved clarity and crispness as their budget went up. To me, all the instruments physically sound better here, and that's including Julian's vocals. It is an improvement on the first album, at least in terms of the performance and production.

Where it lacks then is the writing, full of incredible quips and one-liners each deserving of a certificate for how memorable and amusing they can be. Unfortunately, the writing as a whole does feel like a step down both with the lyrics and instrumentals, as many of the melodies lack the same spry yet retro feel. What's more, when Room On Fire tails off for its two-track moment of mediocrity, the songs are slightly less essential than their Is This It counterparts. It's still a great album, but those are some of the reasons my mind's decided to narrowly flip between the two records.

8.5/10

Best Tracks: 12:51; Reptilia; The End Has No End; Meet Me In The Bathroom; What Ever Happened; Automatic Stop
Worst Tracks: Under Control

2

"Virtue"
The Voidz

30th March 2018

Of course, in spite of the closeness between The Strokes' first two albums, you would have noticed that Room On Fire was only at #3 meaning I have some explaining to do for all the defensive Strokes fans. This is of course the first album I reviewed on my blog, but it isn't simply sentimental value keeping this album so firmly at #2. Virtue is, for me, the refinement of the diverse chaos of not only The Voidz' first album Tyranny but also the similar one-style-per-song approach to an album that The Strokes' displayed prominently and only semi-successfully on Comedown Machine.

Each song can offer something different, but there's none of the hesitation when it comes to enveloping and becoming each sound that prevented Comedown from reaching its potential greatness, and what's more there's not a single song here that doesn't have a chorus I couldn't recite (save the songs that don't have a chorus of course). This is an album that exists within a much more familiar space for me, reasonably far removed from the post punk of The Strokes that has come to haunt Julian. Tyranny was a necessary step to leave that sound behind absolutely but, just as the albums were intended to be, Virtue is the solution and acceptance of that complete change of sound. There are even two tracks (Lazy Boy and Leave It In My Dreams) that emulate but adapt the more straightforward indie The Strokes used as a foundation. What I love about The Voidz is that they use genres not as foundation but as scaffolding to reach new personal heights that accentuate the messages they preach.

9/10

Best Tracks: Pointlessness; Pyramid Of Bones; QYURRYUS; All Wordz Are Made Up; Pink Ocean; We're Where We Were; ALieNNatioN
Worst Tracks: Wink

1

"Is This It"

The Strokes

9th October 2001

For as long as I've been a fan of The Strokes, this was only ever my second favourite of their albums. Whilst I dug the catchy, memorable lyrics and infectious melodies, there was something about the rawness of the record I wasn't ready to accept for whatever reason. Again and again I would revisit it, hoping to revel in the simplistic post-punk revival and revitalisation that everyone else seemed to love so much. Finally, it clicked with me and I could see and love this album for the continually fresh yet nostalgic retrospective it is.

The lyrics are some of the best Julian's ever written pretty much across the board, he's an amusing presence throughout and there's an undeniable beauty in the intentionally raw and rugged sound of this album, particularly given how tightly it's controlled and presented due to how phenomenal each instrumentalist is. From the sparse but groovy basslines to the ultra-melodic guitars that drive the record as what's probably the primary instrument here, Julian's vocals intentionally buried in the mix to obscure his fantastic storytelling so as to focus on the importance of the sound of this album enough to appreciate all the textures and melodies without taking away from that fundamental element that us Julian's drawling, laidback vocals. 

This is a near perfect album, but I won't add to the scores of people giving it the full 5 star review because there are moments here and there that still don't fully work for me, and I'm not going to ignore that. If it was perfect, I think it would find it very hard to retain its post punk edge. No, The Strokes are the sort of band that you love for all their imperfections, even as they continue to build up and overwhelm you on their worst albums they're there to charm you on their best. "New York City Cops" might have spades of energy but the chorus is far too repetitive, and whilst many elements of "Barely Legal" remain high-octane and essential, it's the song I care for the least on this album as a whole. That said, there's more than enough to love here, and love this album I certainly do! Is This It by The Strokes remains Julian Casablancas's best album, and one of the most quintessential indie releases from the 21st Century.

9/10

Best Tracks: Soma; Alone Together; Trying Your Luck; Is This It; Last Nite; Hard To Explain; The Modern Age; Someday 
Worst Tracks: Barely Legal

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Thank you so much for reading this post, I have to say it feels great to be discussing an artist I admire so much and especially in celebration of the two year anniversary of my blog. I thank you very much for reading, especially those of you who may have been here from the start and supported this little obsession of mine.

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