It was probably not much fun to be in The Strokes as 2005โ€™s โ€œFirst Impressions Of Earthโ€ exploded at the top of the UK charts and then, like a spent firework, plummeted straight out the bottom. Still, it would appear that waking up one morning to find the zeitgeist went thattaway can be quite a liberating experience.

Just ask Fabrizio Moretti. Come early 2007, the Strokes drummer found himself hanging out in Los Angeles with friend Rodrigo Amarante, singer/guitarist of Brazilโ€™s Los Hermanos, jamming in Devendra Banhartโ€™s new band of hairies, Megapuss, and on the sly, working on some songs of his own.

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It would be deceptive, though, to describe โ€œLittle Joyโ€ as a solo album. The trio completed by Morettiโ€™s new beau, Los Angeles songwriter Binki Shapiro, this clutch of mostly gentle, tropical-tinged pop songs feels like the stuff of fruitful collaboration. Recorded with a warm, vintage feel by Noah Georgeson, Banhart collaborator and co-writer of much of 2007โ€™s โ€œSmokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyonโ€, much of โ€œLittle Joyโ€ is reminiscent both of Banhartโ€™s sunnier moments and, well, The Strokes themselves. Lionโ€™s share of the vocals is handled by Amarante, whose tousled croon is, at times, an eerie ringer for Julian Casablancas.

His โ€œBrand New Startโ€ is a sunny swing, chorusing โ€œThere ainโ€™t no lover like the one I gotโ€ over doo-wop harmonies and small crests of horns, and heโ€™s got a nice way with understated insouciance: โ€œOh, is this where it ends/A whimper in the place of a bang?โ€ he laments on โ€œNo Oneโ€™s Better Sakeโ€. Shaprio, meanwhile, takes lead on a handful of songs, best being โ€œUnattainableโ€, fragile yearning reminiscent of Mo Tuckerโ€™s โ€œAfter Hoursโ€. Ambitions here, you feel, do not extend far beyond โ€˜a good time, all the timeโ€™ โ€“ itโ€™s probably telling that the band name derives from a cocktail lounge on Sunset Boulevard โ€“ but then, Moretti probably wouldnโ€™t want it any other way.

LOUIS PATTISON