He is a man who is doomed to be forever known either as ‘that guy from the Strokes’ or the son of a legendary songwriter mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit song (Except to dullards like the NME staffer who saw fit to entitle a story ‘Strokes’ dad to be inducted into Songwriter’s Hall of Fame’).
Albert Hammond, Jr. – ¿Cómo Te Llama?
http://www.alberthammondjr.com/ www.myspace.com/alberthammondjr http://www.roughtraderecords.com/ http://www.konkurrent.nl/
¿Cómo Te Llama? roughly translates as ‘What’s your name?’ Given his background, Albert Hammond, Jr. could be forgiven an identity crisis – he is a man who is doomed to be forever known either as ‘that guy from the Strokes’ or the son of a legendary songwriter mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit song (Except to dullards like the NME staffer who saw fit to entitle a story ‘Strokes’ dad to be inducted into Songwriter’s Hall of Fame’). With this album he tries to step out of those considerable shadows.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t traces of his musical background on the album. Many of the riffs are reminiscent of his Strokes work and the distortion he uses on his voice for most of the album gives his vocals more than a passing resemblance to Julian Casablancas. Moreover the template for most of the album appears to be stuff that his dear old dad would find familiar. It never resembles the MOR of Hammond Sr., but many of the musical references are of a similar vintage, even if they tend to be more Neil Young than Neil Diamond.
When it works it is a veritable delight. The album opener cocks a hat to Hammond’s other job in its opening guitar licks, before that intro fades and is replaced with a big power-pop chorus. The power-pop approach is followed even more assiduously in The Boss Americana. There is a pleasing willingness to be eclectic that contrasts nicely with The Strokes’ seeming inability to move away from the increasingly tired garage-rock template.
However the approach doesn’t always pay off. He references the likes of Pink Floyd, The Kinks and John Lennon and even, on Rocket, Marc Bolan (a T. Rex fixation would at least explain the barnet). What he doesn’t do is achieve anything quite as interesting. He hasn’t quite stepped out of those shadows yet. Although he probably has enough time to record and release another couple of albums in which to develop his craft by the time Casablancas and co get around to maybe thinking about possibly starting to work on any new music.
Words: Stuart Crosse