Roger Miller and Lee Hazlewood. These seem to be the role models for what Adam Green, formerly of The Moldy Peaches, (though that's a long time ago now), has decided he'd like to be as he moves towards middle age. Listen to Little Green Apples by the former and My Autumn's Done Gone by the latter to identify the kernel of what's going on over the half hour course of Green's latest and quite splendid album Engine of Paradise.
It probably won't get too much critical attention. It seems that Green's moment in the sun will prove to be mostly the work he did at the turn of the century with Kimya Dawson in the Peaches. A knockabout, comedic duo, they were fortunate to emerge at the same time as the incredible moment when The Strokes and umpteen other notable young New York based talents appeared.
The Moldy Peaches probably wouldn't have got the column inches they did if it hadn't been for that. Not that they weren't a fine band but they were self-consciously obscure in their concerns. Then, a few years later they were enshrined on the indie canon once and for all when Anyone But You and a number of Dawson songs where chosen for the OST of Juno. Cutesy for sure. Infantile perhaps, but finely crafted and as warm as a family living room with the open fire blazing in November.
Green hasn't garnered particular notice from taste-makers since he and Dawson went their separate ways. Except for those who cared and continue to care. This is a shame because he has a pretty good work ethic and has been putting out good records on two or three year intervals ever since. Still, he doesn't get much mainstream attention nowadays. Pitchfork gave up reviewing his records a few years back.
Frankly, this is their loss. I'm not really sufficiently an expect to judge where Engine of Paradise ranks overall in Green's body of work but it ranks pretty highly on its own terms with me right now. It's a loving, crafted and nostalgic record for those unashamed to wear woolly cardigans and be sentimental.After all 2019's Autumn is rolling in, and this is as homely and likeable an album as you're likely to hear all season.
Green favours the kind of chamber arrangements that Miller, Hazlewood and indeed Jimmy Webb based so much of their careers around. That in in itself is enough to recommend it to those of a particular musical disposition. What he sprinkles on top is a wry, lyrical and vocal irony not a million miles away from that associated with the late, lamented David Berman.
Berman, who passed only recently in the saddest of circumstances, is still sore, subject matter for those who loved his work. Green is not an artist of this stature but he is someone to treasure nevertheless and it's nice to have Engine of Paradise, a glass half full record to act as a counterpoint to Berman's last record, the glass half empty, (as things transpired), Purple Mountains album.
So, this is a go to record for those who like the kind of stuff I've detailed in preceding paragraphs. Apparently, a concept album of sorts 'about the clash of humans with machines, the meeting of spirituality with singularity and the biderectional relationship between life and the afterlife.' I can say nothing at all about all that. Anyhow, it's a very fine record and I commend it to you!
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