Adam Green - 'Gemstones' (Rough Trade) Released 24/01/05

 

The moniker ‘critical acclaim’ divides a room like a dirty fart. And Adam Green’s third post (or is that during?) Moldy Peaches album is no different. The songs themselves are pure bum gas.

 

Happy clappy, often swing-time ditties that belong more in a line-dancing class than on the shelves of HMV under the words ‘Indie-rock’. They are spared only by the fact that Green’s astute lyrical swankiness is ‘acclaimable’, biting and suave all at once. Much like Noel Coward would have been as the Terminator. ‘Chubby Princess’ gaily depicts filthy congress with some fat munter, while title-track ‘Gemstones’ covers everything from globalization to the diet habits of movie stars.

 

It’s impossibly eccentric yet down to earth, sporadically hyperactive yet poignant, but ‘Gemstones’ will cling to you like a bad smell, run it’s scummy fingers through your hair and whisper sweet nothings about blowjobs and the holocaust. Crackhouse Leonard Cohen or the modern-day doyen of NYC anti-folk? You couldn’t fart between them.