Sixes & Sevens (Bonus Track Version)

iTunes Review

As a member of the Moldy Peaches and as a solo performer, Adam Green mixes the cutesy with the profane, the serious with the silly, and approximates the mood and tone of the many singer-songwriters who have come before him. Much like his contemporaries — Momus, the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, Ween — Green treats music like he’s flipping the dial on a very hip karaoke machine where his original tunes have replaced the usual hits. On his fifth solo album, 2008’s Sixes and Sevens, he finds Jonathan Richman innocence (“Tropical Island”), Tom Jones nightclub schmaltz (“Twee Twee Dee”), Lee Hazlewood darkness (“Getting Led”), and Stephen Malkmus quickstep (“Be My Man”) within his circle of competence. At twenty tunes, and only two exceeding the three-minute mark, the ambitious mix plays less like a stylistically cohesive album than an eclectic radio station where the singer just happens to sound the same. Legendary arranger David Campbell (Leonard Cohen, Cat Power) assists with creating the right soundscapes: “Broadcast Beach” bases itself on a ‘60s girl-group schematic; “It’s A Fine” could be a Gordon Lightfoot outtake; “Homelife” comes to life like Scott Walker with its thick orchestration. Quite a variety.