Album review: Adam Green
Adam Green
Sixes and Sevens
Label: Rough Trade
Website: www.adamgreen.net
5 out of 5
With Moldy Peaches songs featured heavily on the soundtrack of this year’s indie film hit, Juno, now is a great time for a new Adam Green record.
New album Sixes and Sevens sees Green maturing from DIY indie hipster to a singer songwriter with the potential to reach a broader crossover audience. And while crossover success is often accompanied by a watering-down of the artist’s original creative spark, Sixes and Sevens is as fresh, inventive and wilfully odd as one would expect
Rarely weighing in over 3 minutes, each of the 20 songs on this album lays testament to Green’s fecundity, creativity and skill, from Festival Song, a 2.25 minute hallelujah, to That Sounds Like A Pony, a track that hovers somewhere between indie rap (seriously) and spoken-word poetry.
The anthemic Getting Led – a firm fan favourite – is hypnotic, joyous and uplifting. A sure-fire crossover hit if ever I’ve heard one. I’ve got to give snaps to Tropical Island – a Fifties love-croon, with a candy calypso beat and marvellously oblique lyrics such as “courageous doofus by design / blankets filled with iodine” and “ring ding battering ram“.
Morning After Midnight is defiantly grandiose, with a full compliment of musicians, including a horn section and choir. A full-on bluesy belter, this is as far away from a shambolic indie one-man band as you can get. Contrast it with the delicate strum of It’s A Fine, the whimsical shuffle of Grandma Shirley and Papa, the romantic fire of Homelife and you start to get an idea of just how many strings Green has to his bow.
Much like a burlier-sounding Sufjan Stevens, Adam Green has a unique musical vision, a particular way of putting things together than means he sounds unlike anyone else. I mean, how many people could put together a song that is part vaudeville, part Russian fugue, that begins with the words, “Ricky, why so sticky?” and have it actually work? You get the picture.
Green’s music is witty, idiosyncratic and a joy to listen to. His deep baritone, like that of Lou Reed, imbues even the wackiest couplets with a warmth and richness that gives them strength and vigour.
Green deserves to do well with this, one of the most varied and consistently good records this reviewer has heard in a looong time.
Sixes and Sevens
Label: Rough Trade
Website: www.adamgreen.net
5 out of 5
With Moldy Peaches songs featured heavily on the soundtrack of this year’s indie film hit, Juno, now is a great time for a new Adam Green record.
New album Sixes and Sevens sees Green maturing from DIY indie hipster to a singer songwriter with the potential to reach a broader crossover audience. And while crossover success is often accompanied by a watering-down of the artist’s original creative spark, Sixes and Sevens is as fresh, inventive and wilfully odd as one would expect
Rarely weighing in over 3 minutes, each of the 20 songs on this album lays testament to Green’s fecundity, creativity and skill, from Festival Song, a 2.25 minute hallelujah, to That Sounds Like A Pony, a track that hovers somewhere between indie rap (seriously) and spoken-word poetry.
The anthemic Getting Led – a firm fan favourite – is hypnotic, joyous and uplifting. A sure-fire crossover hit if ever I’ve heard one. I’ve got to give snaps to Tropical Island – a Fifties love-croon, with a candy calypso beat and marvellously oblique lyrics such as “courageous doofus by design / blankets filled with iodine” and “ring ding battering ram“.
Morning After Midnight is defiantly grandiose, with a full compliment of musicians, including a horn section and choir. A full-on bluesy belter, this is as far away from a shambolic indie one-man band as you can get. Contrast it with the delicate strum of It’s A Fine, the whimsical shuffle of Grandma Shirley and Papa, the romantic fire of Homelife and you start to get an idea of just how many strings Green has to his bow.
Much like a burlier-sounding Sufjan Stevens, Adam Green has a unique musical vision, a particular way of putting things together than means he sounds unlike anyone else. I mean, how many people could put together a song that is part vaudeville, part Russian fugue, that begins with the words, “Ricky, why so sticky?” and have it actually work? You get the picture.
Green’s music is witty, idiosyncratic and a joy to listen to. His deep baritone, like that of Lou Reed, imbues even the wackiest couplets with a warmth and richness that gives them strength and vigour.
Green deserves to do well with this, one of the most varied and consistently good records this reviewer has heard in a looong time.
posted by YG&B at 1:57 PM
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