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Elly Roberts reviews
Rough Trade Records
- Released: October 2006
- Rating: 8/10
Not afraid to leave the Strokes vast empire, son of legendary Albert Hammond, junior strikes out for his debut album on Rough Trade Records.
Born in LA, April 9 1980, the 26-year-old makes a real fist of his solo foray.As rhythm guitarist with the Strokes hes achieved two number 2 albums in theUK and a top ten single.
Now the snappy dresser is testing the water as asolo artist, with his penchant jangly guitar inevitably evident here andthere, but the thrust of the Strokes is temporarily abandoned for an occasionalgentler template. Not a big writing contributor to the Strokes repertoire,hes certainly found some latent inspiration on Yours To Keep.
Melodic ditties aplenty, the songs have a summery feel, and should have beenreleased earlier in the year, maybe making a bigger impact three or fourmonths ago. Nevertheless, its a little gem. Bringing guests Sean Lennon(some bass, piano and backups), and (Strokes) singer Julian Casablancas (Scared)on board, Hammond declares hes been, “waiting to make a record like this foryears.”
With that in mind, this might be considered to be his maturation curve, so hehasnt rushed things. From its fragile plodding opener Cartoon Music ForSuper Lovers, it can be detected that this is very much a solo project,with followers In Transit and Everyone Gets A Star (a singlereleased exclusively through iTunes on Sept 4th) and Bright Young Thingpushing up the beats with catchy hooks and harmonies running riot.
John Lennon-influenced Blue Skies serves as a poignant reminder thatthe Fab Four are still very much in the American folklore psyche, with janglyrocker 101 out as the next single out on November 27. Striking a more MORformat, whistle – nifty radio-friendly Call An Ambulance would havemade a better offering for greater commercial appeal, certainly in the UK.
Despite some divine backups by Lennon-Lattimer-Casablancas, Scared proves theonly weak spot. Back on form, RnB drum led Holiday perks up the run-in,whilst the 5 minutes plus of expansive closer Hard To Live, with itsdelicious Latino brass breaks, rubber stamps an excellent debut, thoughcommercial success with depend on his fans making the effort to check it out.
Weblink:roughtraderecords.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Cartoon Music For Superheroes
2. In Transit
3. Everyone Gets A Star
4. Bright Young Thing
5. Blue Skies
6. 101
7. Call An Ambulance
8. Scared
9. Holiday
10. Hard To Live In the City
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.