On Repeat: 'More To Life' By Albert Hammond Jr
Tristan Young @talltristan
Certainly no one would decry any artist of any caliber for exercising creative license. With that in mind Julian Casablanca is more than welcome to spend his post Strokes years experimenting with the Voidz to his heart’s content. Yet when the results of such tinkering are a clusterfuck of deranged instrumentation and his crooning baritone being auto tuned to all hell and back, it’s kind of a drag. It sounds like anathema or even a straight up ‘fuck you’ to the sound he used to be a part of. Luckily, Albert Hammond Jr is here to pick up the pieces. With his single ‘More To Life’ the former rhythm guitarist for The Strokes taps into the pure core of what made them so captivating nearly 20 years ago. His vocal isolation at the beginning is a bit odd, like a cross between Bob Dylan and Bradford Cox. It doesn’t actually sound bad, albeit a bit of a caricature. But when the guitars kick in around the 43 second mark- just wow. Hammond Jr ditches the weight of legacy and responsibility and lets his voice soar into falsetto as the lead guitar springs to life with dazzling neon scales. The arpeggiated strings have a tactile pop but bleed together into razor sharp pitched expressions of joy. The transition into crunchier electric guitar distortions is also pretty great. With both styles he perfectly captures the freeform breeze by way of astounding precision that made The Stroke so exciting to begin with. Sure this is his own project and he’s no doubt looking to grow beyond the shadow of the 2000 indie rock revolt he helped create, but it’s encouraging to see someone taking the best attributes of that era into the modern age. Check out ‘More To Life’ right here or on EP31 of the show. Find it on iTunes or Spotify or check out our EP31 Apple Music playlist.