Former The Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr finds inspiration in the past for his fourth solo release Francis Trouble.
Grief, loss and alienation are central subjects in many musical works, but not often in the way they are in Albert Hammond Jr’s latest album. In 1979, his mother miscarried a boy named Francis, unaware that twin brother Albert was still growing inside of her. Only recently Albert found out that when he was born a few months later, alongside was a small fingernail, a sad reminder of the twin he never got to spend more than a brief time in their mother’s womb with.
This significant event inspired Albert Hammond Jr for his fourth solo studio album Francis Trouble, released through Red Bull Records on March 9, 2018. With a topic as serious as this you’d expect the music to be sombre and gloomy, but in reality Francis Trouble might be Hammond’s brightest album yet with lots of infectious and melodic guitar lines covering up the depth of the lyrics.
The album starts off with a few seconds of simple birdsong in the intro of ‘DvsL’, before going straight into the upbeat and vibrant guitar lines that will continue throughout the rest of the album. Hammond’s experience as rhythm guitarist in The Strokes frequently shines through in this new release. ‘Set To Attack’ sounds like it could fit on the band’s discography as easily as his own, the guitar lines throughout the album, though very tight and hooky, are quite uniform and guitar solos such as the one on ‘Set To Attack’ are calmer than they could have been.
Over all Francis Trouble is a very solid indie rock album and Albert Hammond Jr delivered exactly what we expected from this album, a view into his sorrow and feelings of alienation, but with the infectious and melodic guitar lines we’ve all come to love of him.
Rating out of 10: 7/10
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