★★★★★
It's been five years since we've heard from everyone's favorite floppy-haired Stroke in solo form. Since 2008's hit-and-miss Como Te Llama? , Albert Hammond, Jr. has not only released two albums with his day job band, he got sober after an ugly battle with heroin and Oxycontin. This rebirth comes in the form of an album, his clean slate temperament palpable on a five-song comeback EP simply titled AHJ . Sobriety suits Hammond Jr. well, as these are easily some of his strongest songs to date...
- consequenceofsound.net
2013-12-03
★★★★★
The ghost of Lester Bangs is whispering in my ear that he really digs AHJ, Albert Hammond Jr's EP, and that of course the Strokes are his kind of band, with the black leather jackets, the guitars, the cigarettes, the girls, the attitude, the music. He thinks AHJ is pretty, pretty good considering how everything else seems to be going in these last bloated days watching the rotting corpse of capitalism decompose...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-11-04
★★★★★
Tweet Ask For Seconds It is an exercise in simplicity, this experience with The Strokes' Albert Hammond, Jr., on his new EP, AHJ. Compared to the baroque pop sensibilities of his 2006 debut LP, Yours To Keep, and the indie rock of his 2008 followup, ¿Cómo Te Llama?, this EP does not ask the listener for a huge investment. AHJ endures for maybe 20 minutes, with the songs' modest arrangements offering a lot of breathing room. Opening cuts "St...
- www.mxdwn.com
2013-10-16
★★★★★
Albert Hammond Jr. is not the most popular Stroke, nor the most rock-star-stylish, nor the one who attracts an inordinate amount of popular comedic actresses, nor even the quiet one. But he is nonetheless the Strokesiest of the Strokes--if you were to ever dress up as a Stroke for Halloween, you'd be copping Hammond's one-size-too-small thrift-store sports jacket, skinny tie, Chuck Taylors, and hair photoshopped off of Billy Ficca's head on the first Television album cover...
- pitchfork.com
2013-10-09
★★★★★
Buy / Listen: 7Digital | Amazon | eMusic | We7 | Spotify It's not an enviable position, effectively being the Nicola from Girls Aloud of the world's test-tube perfect indie band. Curly of hair, thick of eyebrow and with an unnerving penchant for holding his guitar a little bit too high, Hammond Jr looked as though he was someone's geeky cousin filling in -til another jacket and haircut arrived to throw some shapes...
- www.state.ie
2011-02-20
★★★★★
Two cliché's about guitarist solo careers are being challenged here. Firstly, that they're often ill-advised vanity projects, populated with tuneless dirges and wanky, muso guitar noodling (think John Squire). Secondly, that they're wounded pride reactions to ball busting band break ups (Bernard Butler et al). It's a welcome surprise then, that two rather fine debut solo albums by axe heroes have appeared within a few months...
- www.gigwise.com
2010-11-09
★★★★★
Quite a few spindly young guitarists would sacrifice body parts to be the third-most-famous Stroke. I probably would, too-- not so much for the money, the girls or the chops, as to don Albert Hammond, Jr.'s upscale formalwear and Chia hair. But somehow, at least for him, it turns out there's actually more to life than clean, supporting fretwork and curl-enhancing conditioner...
- pitchfork.com
2010-09-11
★★★★★
Second time round, is the prospect of a solo album from Albert Hammond Jr more or less frightening? He may have been touring with The Strokes over the last couple of years, but where does his heart really belong: to Julian Casablancas et al or to centre stage? After all, it's 20 months since Yours To Keep and nearly 30 since First Impressions Of Earth. Two solo albums since the last Strokes effort is starting to look dangerously like a career move...
- www.musicomh.com
2010-08-23
★★★★★
It's fair to say that in the list of 'fantasy solo albums', Albert Hammond Jr's probably wouldn't be top of the list. Firstly, there's the danger that it could lead to the break up of The Strokes, and secondly, surely Julian Casablancas or Nick Valensi would produce a more intriguing solo prospect. Albert Hammond Jr? Well, he's just the rhythm guitarist isn't he...
- www.musicomh.com
2010-08-23
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