Nickel Eye – The Time Of The Assassins

A cynic might observe that members of The Strokes seem to feel obliged to each release a solo or spin-off album before the most celebrated of New York garage bands end their hiatus. In the past six months alone we’ve had guitarist Albert Hammond Jr’s second album, a debut from drummer Fabrizio Moretti’s side-project Little Joy, and now bassist Nikolai Fraiture gets in on the act with his ‘other band’, Nickel Eye. Making up the numbers are London trio South and – Fraiture being a Stroke n’all – cameos from Regina Spektor and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner. Unsurprisingly, the bass sits in the foreground of the mix, especially in the ska-tinged Brandy of the Damned, while there is more than a passing resemblance to Fraiture's full-time band on You And Everyone Else. Putting preconceived expectations aside, this is a satisfying work of homespun folk-rock. Not the most earth-shattering of debuts, but it plugs a gap already part-filled by Hammond Jr and Moretti. [Nick Mitchell]