ADAM GREEN - Gemstones

Virtually unknown in Italy, with a modest following in Germany and England and idolized back home between the US and Canada, Adam Green returns to fire up his crooked brand of songwriting, somewhere between comedy pop and acoustic folk. Nearly five years have passed since he crowned himself an "anti-folk" artist with the Moldy Peaches, years in which Mr. Green released "Friends of Mine", his own singular and unrepeatable masterpiece (all the more so in light of this latest effort). Ideas are certainly not lacking: there's the Zappa-esque theatrics of "Gemstones", which in the space of two minutes casually rides through sixties rock-blues, adult pop and country. There's the folky "Carolina" with a pop chorus tailor-made for endless radio airplay, and there's "Crackedhouse Blues", which apes the Doors.

There are the mock-serious singer-songwriter episodes, in which Green disguises himself as Leonard Cohen, perfectly mimicking even his vocal timbre; in this respect, "Country Road" comes off brilliantly, sounding like a parodic revisitation of Cohen as reimagined by De André. Green's songwriting remains fresh and quick-witted, well suited to sudden shifts in rhythm and melody, to vocal and rhyming games, and to the abrupt cutoffs of songs the moment the minute hand completes its second lap of the clock. And that's as far as the serious stuff goes. Because our man is anything but serious. After founding the Moldy Peaches, who had fun on American stages reinventing themselves as latter-day Frogs, he hit solo success just a couple of years ago with the chart-smashing hit "Jessica" (from the album "Friends Of Mine"), in which he toyed with the imaginary death of MTV starlet Jessica Simpson.

His lyrics often move between vulgarity, socio-political satire and comedy: an obsession with sex, everything that skirts around the unpolitically correct, and playful sitcom-style sketches are the main themes running through this Green singer-songwriter's work. It's healthy, sometimes, to take refuge in this kind of pop comedy escapism à la Tenacious D (the band led by Jack Black, best known to most for his role in "School of Rock" – though Tenacious D are a cut above Green) especially when they succeed at their main goal: entertainment. And Adam Green entertains, and has a good time doing it.

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30/04/2026