Momentary Masters (LP)

The third solo album and first in five years from The Strokes founder and guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. Recorded in Hammond Jr.'s home in upstate New York in a converted barn he calls One Way Studios. 'Momentary Masters' is a record that reflects on missed opportunities, choices made, wasted time, and paths not chosen. He calls it "a love letter to my past self." The music might be largely buoyant-spry, breezy guitar lines locking together and dancing apart - but melancholy frequently seeps into even the sunniest of toplines. It's a record of acceptance, too. AHJ showcases a bolder stance, his vocals are deeper, pulled to the fore, with less effects applied, each song is anchored by a more muscular rhythm section.

'Momentary Masters' may be concerned with the duality of the human condition, and the recognition that life with all its peaks, plateaus, and lows is a mere blip-"enjoy the weirdness, because it's all so fleeting"-but ultimately, in these succinct rock songs he's communicated something that will morph in meaning through time, both to himself and to those who are listening.