Albert Hammond Jr - Melodies on Hiatus

Though its obtuse title might be something of a misnomer - while bandmate Julian Casablancas’ extra-curricular work has always tended towards the avant garde, Albert Hammond Jr can never resist a bright guitar line - ‘Melodies on Hiatus’ is undoubtedly a mixed bag when it comes to the calibre of earworms contained within. For a start off, at 19 tracks and with the prerogative of recording a demo and then “just leaving them like that,” there’s an innate quality control filter missing here; where the distinctly Strokes-y melancholy of ‘Dead Air’, or the darker stalk of the Matt Helders-featuring ‘Thoughtful Distress’ succeed, others (‘Home Again’, ‘Old Man’) are throwaway jangles that feel like AHJ-by-numbers. There are moments, such as the warmly infectious ‘818’, when he captures the wide-eyed magic of early solo debut ‘Yours To Keep’, but there’s also a reasonable amount of filler; demos that maybe wouldn’t have made it past Round Two had they been put to the test.