Solo, Albert Hammond Jr. is a Stroke of good fortune

Even Hammond acknowledges how unlikely it is that, seven years after the Strokes' debut single, "Last Nite" (which featured Hammond in a rare lead), wrote the indie playbook for the 2000s, he's still the only Stroke to go solo.

"I feel pretty lucky, all things considered," Hammond says by phone as he scrambles across New York City to make a hometown set at the Mercury Lounge. "I mean, there aren't that many non-singing rhythm guitarists that release solo albums, let alone ones that people actually enjoy. I was initially a little scared to do it."

Of course, had Hammond's debut been subpar, critics would've sharpened their knives at the opportunity to take down the nattily attired son of Albert Hammond Sr., a Gibraltarian singer-songwriter who penned tunes for, among others, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Tina Turner and Willie Nelson. Instead, the junior Hammond's '60s pop-leaning "Yours to Keep" drew mostly praise, garnering a respectable 72 on review-crunching website Metacritic.

That initial solo outing allowed Hammond to crawl out from the shadow of the band that he co-founded when he was just 18. With "¿Cómo Te Llama?," he's continued to develop his sound, expanding his palate beyond New Wave and retro-pop to pull off a 7-minute-plus instrumental ("Spooky Couch") burnished with both African and symphonic influences. On "Borrowed Time," he indulges in a white-boy reggae skank capable of confounding anyone searching for the Velvet Underground and Television comparisons that marked the onset of his career.

Of course, those looking for the noirish guitar churn that initially won him fame won't be disappointed.

"It would be weird if the guitar tones weren't a little similar," Hammond says, laughing. "People will sometimes say my guitar 'sounds too much like the Strokes,' but that makes sense. It's my tone. I worked hard to have it sound unique."