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- Date Released: March 18, 2008
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Label: Rough Trade
20 colorful songs that continue Green's long-fought war against cliché.
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We Say...
These are invigorating times for Adam Green. His former band, the Moldy Peaches, is enjoying a popularity surge thanks to the hit movie Juno's commandeering of the group's “Anyone Else But You.” On top of that, Green himself has just made what is easily his best solo album to date. Partly recorded in a Brooklyn school for autistic children, Sixes & Sevens packs 20 colourful songs into less than 50 minutes, with Green’s playful, memorable lyrics continuing his long-fought war against cliché.
Green is almost 27 now, and you could say that Sixes & Sevens is his coming of age record. He’s retained his childlike imagination while losing the scatological bent that made some of his earlier albums sound annoyingly childish in places. In slowing his productivity rate at the request of his record company, Green has also been able to fine-tune his craft. While his previous four solo records arrived at a gallop, Sixes & Sevens was gently wooed over 18 months. The care lavished upon it has borne wonderful results.
Musically speaking, it’s richly-layered and exquisitely-executed. The space Green allocated for strings on 2006’s Jacket Full of Danger has here been usurped by two female Gospel singers whose soaring, stentorian tones provide neat contrast to Green’s disarming croon. There’s a kitschy, almost easy-listening feel to songs like the Latin-tinged “Tropical Island” and "You Get So Lucky," which is appointed with jaw-harp, pan-pipes and tuba, but Sixes & Sevens is palpably indebted to Stax and Motown too; Green rides an Al Green-like groove on “Twee Twee Dee,” and sometimes draws upon the arranging skills of the venerable David Campbell, a man whose viola-playing graced Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”
When I recently interviewed Green for the British newspaper The Independent, he told me that, prior to making Sixes & Sevens, he also co-wrote some songs with Paul Simon’s son Harper. “He called me up and said, ‘You wanna come to Nashville?” Green related. “He was making a new record and he’d put together Bob Dylan’s band from Blonde On Blonde, so of course I went.”
Naturally, hanging out with Blonde On Blonde session players who’d also backed the likes of Johnny Cash and Aretha Franklin affected Green’s approach on Sixes & Sevens. “Those guys were and still are unstoppable,” he told me, “and I found that inspirational. If the Moldy Peaches was stage one and my earlier solo records were stage two, this is stage three.” -
They Say...
Adam Green, the Moldy Peach who's made a name for himself on the fringes of the singer/songwriter community with his playful, sometimes crude, sometimes sweet, lyrics, returns to Rough Trade for his fifth solo release, Sixes & Sevens. With 20 tracks, the album gives more than enough glimpses at Green's wide-ranging stylings and influences ('50s pop, country, folk, blues-rock, pop, even hip-hop), but it is this very range that is also detrimental. Green can certainly write a decent pop song, but his tendency to jump from one musical theme to another is more distracting and bothersome than anything else. Instead of showing off his ability, Sixes & Sevens is a disjointed conglomeration of different ramblings that can't quite coalesce around any sort of idea. This is only accentuated by the fact that Green's songs themselves generally don't say much of anything, more focused on complex internal rhyme than meaning. The tracks, albeit short (only a couple are over three minutes) seem to drag on indefinitely, and though the album clocks in at just under 50 minutes, it feels as if much more time has passed when the final chords of "Rich Kids," an all-in-all decent song, are played. Green has so many voices, it's hard to know which one is his own. Is it the Tom Jones-esque one on the Hanson Brothers-helped "Twee Twee Dee"? The Stephen Malkmus on "Be My Man"? The Paul Simon on "You Get So Lucky"? Perhaps it's in the middle, where the singer launches into a medley that recalls his folkier days and manages to come across as both sentimental and quirky (take the touchingly open "Homelife," for example)? Sixes & Sevens is too much, too disparate, too nonsensical, to bring together its parts, so even though strong individual moments exist -- "Getting Led," the aforementioned "Homelife" -- as a whole it never quite sounds completed.
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| 01. |  |
Festival Song |
2:21 |
|
| 02. | |
Tropical Island |
2:18 |
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| 03. | |
Cannot Get Sicker |
2:24 |
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| 04. | |
That Sounds Like A Pony |
1:10 |
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| 05. | |
Morning After Midnight |
2:07 |
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| 06. | |
Twee Dee Dee |
2:38 |
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| 07. | |
You Get So Lucky |
2:23 |
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| 08. | |
Getting Led |
2:26 |
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| 09. | |
Drowning Head First |
2:37 |
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| 10. | |
Broadcast Beach |
2:21 |
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| 11. | |
It’s a Fine |
2:11 |
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| 12. | |
Homelife |
2:33 |
|
| 13. | |
Be My Man |
2:16 |
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| 14. | |
Grandma Shirley and Papa |
2:04 |
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| 15. | |
When A Pretty Face |
2:53 |
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| 16. | |
Exp. 1 |
2:37 |
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| 17. | |
Leaky Flask |
3:12 |
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| 18. | |
Bed Of Prayer |
2:27 |
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| 19. | |
Sticky Ricki |
2:15 |
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| 20. | |
Rich Kids |
3:08 |
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20 Total Tracks, 48:21 Total Length
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Credits
- Luis Bonilla - Trombone // Luis Bonilla - Trombone // Greg Calbi - Mastering // David Campbell - Orchestral Arrangements // Zac Hanson - Vocals (Background) // Maria Kitsopoulos - Cello // Sandra Park - Violin // Nathan Brown - Piano // Nathan Brown - Glockenspiel // Nathan Brown - Choir, Chorus // Nathan Brown - Group Member // Dan Myers - Jew's-Harp // Dan Myers - Saxophone // Dan Myers - Vocals (Background) // Dan Myers - Engineer // Dan Myers - Mixing // Isaac Hanson - Vocals (Background) // Taylor Hanson - Vocals (Background) // Josh Hager - Guitar // Josh Hager - Sitar (Electric) // Parker Kindred - Percussion // Parker Kindred - Drums // Parker Kindred - Choir, Chorus // Parker Kindred - Group Member // Lisa Kim - Violin // Adam Green - Mixing // Steven Mertens - Bass // Steven Mertens - Percussion // Steven Mertens - Choir, Chorus // Steven Mertens - Mixing // Steven Mertens - Group Member // Shanelle Saint Cyr - Vocals (Background) // Mark Ephraim - Guitar // Will Stern - Photography // Becky Young - Viola // Loribeth Capella - Vocals // Loribeth Capella - Cover Photo // Darren Korb - Guitar // Lenny Molotov - Guitar // Afua Richardson - Vocals (Background) // Stinky the Ferret - Piano // David Weiss - Clarinet // David Weiss - Pan Pipes
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