Albert Hammond Jr. Goes Up in Smoke in ‘Carnal Cruise’
Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. goes for a stroll in the woods at the beginning of the video for “Carnal Cruise,” which recently premiered on Complex. The track comes from his recently released five-song solo EP AHJ. After his opening stroll, things get hazy – literally. Different colors of smoke surround the guitarist, who pull faces accordingly. It’s a quixotic scene that complements his repetition of the line, “There was something on my mind that I can’t explain,” and as the song progresses the visuals become more and more surreal.
See Where the Strokes’ ‘Is This It?’ Ranks on Our 100 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time
Hammond recently told Rolling Stone that the ideas for the songs on AHJ emerged sometime before the Strokes‘ most recent album, Comedown Machine, came out. He decided to stop working on new music after he’d written five tunes because he wanted to take his solo career slowly. Now, he said, he’s making another EP. “I’m already working on some stuff,” Hammond said. “It almost feels better than making a record, because instead of spending twice the amount of time, it’s much less time.”
As for the future of the Strokes, he confirmed that even though the band hasn’t toured the U.S. in years, they are in fact still a band. “We’ve passed the point of like anger or breakups,” the guitarist said. “We know fans love us and we love them and we are gonna be there with interesting and cool music.”