Albert Hammond Jr + Clews @ Corner Hotel 25-07-18

Review

'..What the music says may be serious, but as a medium it should not be question, analyzed or taken too seriously.'

words: Jess Sommerfeld // photos: @rcstills

Hailing from Mollymook, NSW the Clews collective & quietly took the stage at Corner Hotel, with their solid harmony driven alt-rock songs winning over the audience, almost immediately. Proving to be a very poignant and ideal opener for AHJ. Diverging from a world similar to First Aid Kit, the duos harmonies continually on par mixed with - at times - heavy undertones perplexingly making a perfect mix.

Albert Hammond Jr. made his way back to Australian shores to dive into our ears and minds with the retro-rock boogie beats off his recently released fourth album, Francis Trouble. Playing to a room full of ebullient, Melbs' dwellers - Hammond decorates the stage at the Corner Hotel with a metallic gold, pantsuit while engulfing the stage with his impressively gymnast esque back bends and get-down boogie knees. Underneath a layer of mood inducing lighting Albert takes us on a journey, pairing his most recent offerings with tracks taking us back to the start of his solo career, opening the show with Holiday off his first solo album released in 2006, Yours to keep.

While what lays underneath those playful, undeviatingly crisp guitar loops of Trouble Francis, may be crisis - navigating the emotions of his twin brothers still-birth, this may be the brightest of all of Hammond Jr’s albums to date. 

Its hard to glue your ear to any obvious notes of distress and in a press release, Hammond himself expresses that this album shouldn’t be read into too closely -  (“What the music says may be serious, but as a medium it should not be question, analyzed or taken too seriously”) Right, got it.