Albert is the new Keef! Akin to the most notorious Stone - who waxes better albums than the latter day version of his band - Hammond renders a decidedly superior Strokes on his sophomore effort, again outshining the aforementioned NYC rockers who have never quite lived up to the hype. Como Te Llama? emerges an exuberant mess of a record, harkening back to the days (and it was indeed a long time ago) when hands-off producer Gordon Raphael twiddled the knobs for one of the most exiting debuts to crawl from the wreckage of lower Manhattan since Lou, Andy and the Velvets shot their collective load. Hammond’s voice is drenched in a quasi car-radio reverb effect which serves the songs well. If you’re old enough to remember Sandinista! - you’ll certainly dig the white boy punk reggae of “Lisa” and “Borrowed Time.” Eat to the beat of “Victory at Monterey” - a gloomy, gothic dance track worthy of the Cure when they mattered. “Can there be humor in music?” asked Frank Zappa around the time Hammond was born. Albert responds with the Lennon-esque ballad “Feed Me Jack or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Peter Sellers.” Talk is cheap - Hammond rocks.
--Tom Semioli [August 14, 2008]
