Music Review: Albert Hammond Jr., “Como Te Llama”
Rating: 87
The Strokes make noise that evokes the rush of subways and Lower East Side kicks, but when guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. goes it alone, he sounds about 3,000 miles away. Hammond grew up in Southern California, where his ‘70s singer-songwriter father famously sang it “never rains,” and his second solo disc, “Como Te Llama,” is filled with sunshine. This gritty beach music still retains the unmistakable guitar tone of Hammond’s day job, but the melodies and sentiments have more room to breathe.
On “Como Te Llama,” Hammond continues to find the middle ground between indie rock fuzz and Brian Wilson’s teenage symphonies — he even has a song called “In My Room,” but instead of a paean to protective adolescent isolation, it’s about getting a girl to come home with him. Hammond stretches his sound to include a bargain-basement Timbaland-style beat on “Lisa,” but the piano lines and drum machine are soon engulfed by a wave of guitar distortion. Equally strong is the shimmery shuffling of “GfC” and the ominously kraut-rocking “Victory at Monterey.”
In his heart, Hammond is a rock classicist with wide-ranging taste in time-honored songcraft, a trait that often comes through on Strokes songs but it is most evident on “Como Te Llama” songs such as the wistful doo-wop ballad “You Won’t Be Fooled By This” and the distorted reggae on “Borrowed Time.” There are no throwaways here and Hammond clearly has too much strong material for The Strokes to undertake. Following his excellent 2006 solo debut, “Yours to Keep,” “Como Te Llama” proves that Hammond brings his “A” game no matter which coast he calls home.
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