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Albert Hammond Jr

Melodies On Hiatus

    Pop/rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. is the lead & rhythm guitarist and songwriting member of the GRAMMY® and BRIT Awards-winning band The Strokes. He has released 4 solo albums to date, most recently the acclaimed “Francis Trouble” in 2018 which spawned the radio single “Far Away Truths”. In the 4 years, since then, The Strokes released their US Top 10 charting GRAMMY® nominated rock record “The New Abnormal” and toured the world extensively. Albert also began the songwriting process for his 5th solo album “Melodies on Hiatus”, a 19-track album, crafted in a most experimental style. Albert teamed up with his writing partner, Canadian songwriter, and poet Simon Wilcox (whom he never met during the process) and had lengthy conversations via the telephone; Simon would jot down notes from Albert’s stream of consciousness, and draft the lyrics on her typewriter, and drop them into his letterbox! Albert then added the lyrics to the melodies he had already crafted. The songwriting process became a long distant “anonymous love affair of ideas & lyrics.” The album covers themes of childhood, surviving adolescence, adulthood, vulnerability, fame, relationship with self and others, and is Albert’s “deconstructed broken down ego reaction” to “Francis Trouble.” The album also features songs with GoldLink, Matt Helders (of the Arctic Monkeys), Steve Stevens and Rainsford, and was mixed by Tony Hoffer (known for his work with Beck, Air, M83, The Kooks, Fitz and the Tantrums, Metric, Chromeo, etc.) and mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters (Paramore, Spoon, Tame Impala, Jimmy Eat World, Peanut Butter Wolfe).

    TRACK LISTING

    Disc: 1
    1. Libertude
    2. 100-99 (ft. Goldlink)
    3. Memo Of Hate
    4. Downtown Fred
    5. Old Man
    6. Home Again
    7. I Got You
    8. Darlin'
    9. 5. Thoughtful Distress (ft. Matt Helders & Steve Stevens)

    Disc: 2
    1. Fast Kitten
    2. Caught By Night
    3. I'd Never Leave
    4. Dead Air
    5. One Chance
    6. Never Stop
    7. False Alarm
    8. 13. Remember (ft. Rainsford)
    9. 818
    10. 19. Alright Tomorrow (ft. Rainsford)


    Albert Hammond Jr

    Francis Trouble

      Albert Hammond Jr’s fourth solo album Francis Trouble explores a deeply personal topic – the stillborn death of his twin brother, Francis, and the lingering effects that event has had in his life and music.

      In November of 1979, Hammond Jr’s mother, Claudia, miscarried. Although they rushed to the hospital, Claudia and Albert Hammond Sr. were told that the baby was far too premature to live. Albert continued to grow inside of his mother undetected until she was nearly six months pregnant. Although he had always known of the existence of Francis, it was not until he was 36 years old that he learned from an aunt that part of Francis had remained behind in the womb and was born along side him – a fingernail. With his music moving in a different path than before, Hammond Jr wondered if this new direction came from another avenue of himself, perhaps emanating from whatever he and the departed Francis had shared for the few short months they had together.

      Taking a page from Bowie, Hammond Jr says: “What the music says may be serious, but as a medium it should not be questioned, analyzed or taken too seriously. I think it should be tarted up, made into a character, a parody of itself. The music is the mask the message wears and I, the performer, am the message.” Working within this mentality, Hammond Jr created Francis Trouble, an homage to both the death of his twin and his own birth, as well as the complexities of identity that arise because of their intermingling.

      The number 36 became especially relevant, as he had learned more of Francis’s story at that age, and because he was born on the 9th day of the 4th month of the year. Significantly, the album is exactly 36 minutes long.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. DVSL
      2. Far Away Truths
      3. Muted Beatings
      4. Set To Attack
      5. Tea For Two
      6. Stop And Go
      7. Screamer
      8. Rocky’s Late Night
      9. Strangers
      10. Harder, Harder, Harder


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