Little Joy — Little Joy

Little Joy is The Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti's side-project and features a female singer named Binki Shapiro, who's Moretti's girlfriend. Based on these nuggets alone, one might develop some pre-conceived notions of what the band's eponymous debut sounds like: sloppy, hook-laden pop/rock with brief song lengths and cutesy vocals. Well, that's partially true, but the music has far less grit than Moretti's meal ticket and in lieu, a spicy Latin feel. Rodrigo Amarante is the primary vocalist and he sounds strangely like a more breezy version of Julian Casablancas as he croons and swoons through "Brand New Start" and "No One's Better Sake." The result is a quick collection of undeniably likable songs that are meant to be fun and meaningless… and placeholders until the next Strokes' disc arrives.