History may remember the Strokes as a band who could never repeat the brilliance of their debut, but there’s plenty to enjoy in some of the spin-off records that followed: Julian Casablancas’s caustic electro, Fab Moretti’s bossa nova-tinged pop. Guitarist Nick Valensi’s latest project doesn’t extend that list. Fronted by Valensi and produced by Josh Homme, CRX have excellent credentials, but echoes of their better-known bands – the Strokesy riffs of Anything, the sludgy stoner-rock intro of Broken Bones – only serve to emphasise the ordinariness of the songwriting here. There are outbursts of punkish energy and some occasional snappy hooks, but CRX haven’t a great deal to recommend them beyond the reputations of those involved.
