ADAM GREEN

Adam Green is one of those love-him-or-hate-him sort of artists. Whether performing with Kimya Dawson as the Moldy Peaches, or as a solo artist, he's a guy who seems determined to jar his audience from any and every angle. His primary weapon in this endeavor is his lyrics, which tend toward the scatalogical and the profane. One could, at times, almost mistake Mr. Green for a horny, 13-year-old boy - except for the fact that he has a decidedly adult knack for creating sophisticatedly simple pop arrangements. Call this his saving grace.

On his latest solo disc (available for download at iTunes), Green leans heavily on his affected croon, and it's difficult to know how seriously to take both him and his music. Still, there's something undeniably beguiling about it - especially in the small doses of his two-minute songs. In the first three songs below, one can listen to him morph from easy '70s, Glen Campbell/Jimmy Webb mode to Scott Walker to Jim Morrison.

Yes, it's a freakshow he's running, but he at least has the decency to do it while wearing a tuxedo. Albeit powder blue.

From the LP Jacket Full of Danger, 2006 >>>
[MP3] "Party Line"
[MP3] "Novotel"
[MP3] "C-Birds"

From the LP Garfield, 2002 >>>
[MP3] "Dance With Me"