Albert Hammond Jr. / Mercury Lounge

Single life

July 1, 2008

Albert Hammond Jr. guitar work is an art unto itself—the compressed, bluesified solos (masterfully on The Strokes’ magnum opus cut “Take It Or Leave It”) and the skin tight rhythm holding much of the band’s three albums together makes Hammond Jr. one of the more underrated musicians of the day (he is the third most-famous Stroke, after all). Some of this changed in 2006 with the release of a solo album, “Yours To Keep,” another underrated affair that mined from everywhere from The Beach Boys to New Order. Next week marks the release of a 2nd solo album, “¿Cómo Te Llama?,” which was previewed at this private show.