IFLTS: 'Call an Ambulance,' Albert Hammond Jr.

'Call an Ambulance,' Albert Hammond Jr.
From 2007's 'Yours to Keep'

New Yorkers enjoy unpleasantness. They rattle off daily nuisances to illustrate how their city is more real and thus cooler than yours.

Same with their music: Grittiness is often valued above all else. That Patti Smith spits onstage and Sonic Youth sometime make a Times Square sidewalk driller sound melodic is real cool. Then there are new millennial NYC rock poster boys the Strokes, gifted rock melodists who have too often chosen to pump up the noise instead of finishing their songs.

Luckily, their guitar player -- son of smooth '70s hitmaker Albert "It Never Rains in Southern California" Hammond -- is not too cool for the New York school. Jr's debut solo album, 'Yours to Keep,' is packed with toe-tapping ditties, but, just to be sporting, I'll take the one with the ukulele.

'Call an Ambulance' plays like Lennon at his most nasal singing 'Ram'-era McCartney, and, yes, there are plenty of la-las and whistling. The spec of grit comes from the Hammond's hoarse pipes and the charmingly blunt claim, "I wanna sleep with her."

A delightful song indeed for a sunny day in New York. I think I'll eat outside today.

What song do you freakin' love? Write our next IFLTS. Send it to us at spinnereditor@aim.com