''Phrazes for the Young'' is the debut solo album by American singer-songwriter Julian Casablancas. It was released through his own Cult Records label, via

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

and Rough Trade Records, on November 2, 2009, in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States. Casablancas, who is best known for being the front man of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

-based

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

the Strokes The Strokes are an American rock band from New York City. Formed in 1998, the band is composed of lead singer and songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Mor ...

, recorded the eight-song album in 2009 in New York City,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, and

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

Jason Lader Jason Lader is an American record producer, audio engineer, and mixer from New York. He is also known for playing bass guitar, keyboards, piano, guitar, and as a programmer. He was a member of the band Furslide, and has since worked with Howard ...

and

Mike Mogis Michael Riley Mogis (born May 16, 1974) is an American producer/engineer and multi-instrumentalist who, along with his brother A.J. Mogis, founded Presto! Recording Studios (previously known as Dead Space Recording and, earlier, Whoopass Recor ...

(the latter of Bright Eyes and

Monsters of Folk Monsters of Folk was an American supergroup, consisting of Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes, Will Johnson from Centro-matic and M. Ward, solo artist and half of She & Him. The band was formed in 2 ...

) served as producers. The album title is a reference to Oscar Wilde's "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young". Casablancas' dog, Balki, is pictured on the album sleeve. Critical reception was mostly positive, although Casablancas has since expressed regret about the project, stating, "I had all these different ideas, utI thought 'if I go too weird, people won’t take it seriously,' so I did the safest ideas ..And then… maybe it became this 'oh, this is what he does when he’s on his own' vs. The Strokes, and that was annoying, frustrating.”

Release

The album was previewed in its entirety on August 31, 2009 at the Duo Music Exchange in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan. To celebrate the release, Casablancas played a special series of shows every Friday night in November in Los Angeles. The first track released from the album, " 11th Dimension", had its first airing on the

Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to: *BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC ** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music *CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

Show on September 17, and was marked as Zane Lowe's Hottest Record. The single was released on October 2, 2009 in the US. Casablancas performed "

I Wish It Was Christmas Today I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

" (based on a ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...

'' skit) on '' Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' on December 21, 2009. "Left & Right in the Dark", "Out of the Blue", "Ludlow St" and "11th Dimension" are featured in the ''

Gossip Girl ''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six sea ...

'' episode "The Lady Vanished"; "Out of the Blue" was featured in the trailer of '' The Kids Are All Right''; and "11th Dimension" was featured in the opening of the 2015 comedy ''

Vacation A vacation (American English) or holiday (British English) is either a leave of absence from a regular job or an instance of leisure travel away from home. People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances or for specific festi ...

''. A deluxe box set including

B-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

and home recordings was made available after the album's release. It comes with a vinyl recording of the album and is housed within an antique style box.

Track listing

Personnel

* Julian Casablancas – vocals, all instruments, songwriting *

– all instruments, production ;Additional musicians * Jen Turner – guitar on "Glass" *Lenny Castro – additional percussion on "Ludlow St." intro; shaker on "11th Dimension"; sleigh bell on "Glass"; tambourine on "Out of the Blue" *

Nate Walcott Nate Walcott (born March 6, 1978) is an American musical composer, arranger, pianist, keyboardist, and trumpeter. He has composed the scores for several feature-length films, including 2014's ''The Fault in Our Stars''. He is a member of the ba ...

– horns on "Tourist"; additional horns on "Ludlow St." *

Adam MacDougall Adam "Mad Dog" MacDougall (born 8 May 1975) is an Australian author, businessman and former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international representative ...

– organs on "4 Chords of the Apocalypse" *

Blake Mills Blake Mills (born September 21, 1986) is an American songwriter, guitarist, producer, and composer based in California. Biography Blake Mills was born in Santa Monica, California, United States, and grew up in Malibu, where he attended Malibu ...

– guitar on "4 Chords of the Apocalypse", "Ludlow St." and "11th Dimension" *

– guitar on "Tourist" ;Technical personnel *Jason Lader –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

*Mike Mogis – additional production *Ray Aldaco – additional engineering *Brian Sperber – mixing engineering *

Brian Gardner Brian Knapp Gardner, also known as Brian "Big Bass" Gardner, is an American mastering engineer. He has worked on a number of recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop punk and dance- ...

– mastering *Steve Falone – mastering ;Design *Julian Casablancas and

Warren Fu Warren Fu is an American music video director, illustrator and designer. He has directed videos for artists such as Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, The Strokes, the Killers, Hayley Williams, Mark Ronson, and Julian Casablancas. Fu is signed to ...

– art direction & concept *

– art designer *Williams + Hirakawa –

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2009 debut albums