Adam Green's new album Minor Love came out in North America on Tuesday, and I bought it on Wednesday. Side note: the photos that make up the album artwork (including cameos from the Jahhhman brothers) are AMAZE CRAZE. I've listened to the album a few times, and I'm really happy with it. Much happier than I ever will be with his last studio album Sixes and Sevens. Maybe divorce has done Adam some good? Whatever the case may be, his creativity and willingness to indulge in various musical stylings still dominate his artistic output. A song like "Oh Shucks" sounds super lo-fi, almost as if it could come off of Garfield. "Cigarette Burns Forever" makes use of a vocal echo and classic AG guitar strumming and surreal rhymes about private parties and "magic sandals." "Give Them a Token" sounds a little like "Losing on a Tuesday" and makes use of one of my favorite Mexican slangs: cabron.
As always, though, in the middle of Adam's soundscape of feigned ridiculousness, the existential gems of truth and sadness that populate his songs stand out and make him truly great. In "Breaking Locks" Adam sings about checking into a hotel for some solitary contemplation, calling someone to cure himself of confusion, and going out into the streets to find some "blood." (Metaphor for whatever it is that we all feel compelled to find to ensure our own personal survival?) In the chorus he sings, "No one should ever hold me up," calling himself out for being guilty, "awful" and basically un-back-up-able for his dirty deeds of the past. But "No one should ever hold me up" speaks to Adam's autonomy as a human as well, and one can read it as a (tired, though it may be) refrain that AG uses to remind himself that he can get through it all alone.
You can too.
Homeboy will play Bowery Ballroom on April 23 and April 24. I suggest getting tickets and getting there early if you want to be in the front for some microphone singing with the man himself, but be sure to wear sturdy shoes and a helmet if you don't wanna get one of Adam's Capezio flats in the face when he ambles into or launches himself onto the crowd. He's deceptively dead weighted, that skinny fucker.
