Album: Adam Green, Minor Love (Rough Trade)

One-time Moldy Peach and darling of New York's "anti-folk" scene, Adam Green has parlayed his modest talents into an impressive career trajectory without appearing to develop any aesthetic momentum.

Quite the opposite: where earlier albums such as Friends Of Mine and Sixes & Sevens possessed an occasional notable line or intriguing musical stratagem, Minor Love is almost entirely lacking in saving graces. With their ramshackle pop naturalism, tracks like "What Makes Him Act So Bad", "Give Them A Token" and "Stadium Soul" present Green as a fake Jonathan Richman, torpedoed by his lack of comparable naive charm. Instead, he offers an unappetising blend of selfish slacker slapdash and potty-mouthed arrogance, with an apparent fascination with flatulence rivalling that of the younger current Celebrity Big Brother housemates. As before, his songs are built from disjointed images, non-sequiturs piled up with scant regard for logic or narrative continuity; but they no longer crystallise as often into interesting images. The most coherent piece is probably "Boss Inside", whose brooding resentment is delivered to solo fingerstyle guitar. But the most pertinent line comes in the opening track "Breaking Locks", where Green admits, "I've been too awful to ever be thoughtful". Can't say we weren't warned, then.

Download this Boss Inside; Stadium Soul