Nickel Eye // Time Of The Assassins
Nickel Eye - Time of the Assassins
While we’re assured of new material come February, it seems hard to place your trust in a Strokes reunion when three of the four members have been driving down Solo Rd during this, the band’s four year sabbatical. With Albert Hammond Jr and Fabrizio Moretti already pedaling their wares on the road, the spotlight turns to Strokes’ bassist, Nikolai Fraiture and his solo project, Nickel Eye. Clearly having had his fill of daytime TV and alphabetizing his CD collection, he ends his unemployment with Time of the Assassins, his first solo album. Formed from his early writings as a youthful pre-Stroke, he has put his musings to music, with mostly credible results. The album opens with a funky bass riff, which reminds us of his strong position in the Strokes, and carries the track on with a decidedly funky feel. If this seems a departure from the garage rock of his band, the album takes a rockier route from track 2 onwards. Fraiture’s yearning, dirge-like voice gives the tracks a grungey tone in places, with clever lyrics and well calculated riffs giving the album a place in the alt-rock Americana stronghold. 'Dying Star’ is reminiscent of the Strokes bouncey, dirty rock, but for the most part, songs like 'Brandy of the Damned’, with a reggae beat and 'Back from Exile’ a feisty blues-rock number make this album a highly original grower of a record. With a three-record deal signed, the Strokes comeback seems ever doubtful, but if each of the members keep churning out material of this calibre on their own, keep us waiting a little longer…
8/10 Emu Robot
