This album immediately takes you into the warped world of Adam Green. Not a single scatter of a second is wasted, which surely indicates the level of confidence Green approached this, his fourth album with. The crude imagery, drug checks and youthful jerks of fidgeting are still there. Yet Mr Green has vocally matured and is leaving behind the lo-fi acoustic strummings of previous work , even drug taking is approached differently: “How many drugs does it take you to get you out of my mind,” he asks.
The ever prolific Green only released his previous album Gemstones a year ago, but already he is building on from where that left off. He has kept the more upbeat melodies, and married them with plentiful swathes of dramatic strings. There is a beautiful string section here, a grand moment of piano there, and jangly baritone dashes everywhere. This hints at the timeless necessity of ‘Jacket Full of Danger’, with it’s dreamy music and heaps of unforced personality. It’s a pretty amazing feat that a skinny indie boy, complete with khaki jacket, can sing like such a show man and produce such a record apart from the current indie crop.
More impressively Green does this consistently, full of confidence and a definite musical concept. However, when the music does starts to grate, as naturally it could being from such a definite mould, the lyrics draw you in instead. Green flicks from glamorous Hollywood soundscape to caveman chanting, a deep voice goes a long way, and occasionally sounds like a Happy Days backing track. ‘Jacket Full of Danger’ is a jolly good listen, complete with rosy cheeks and a smeared jam stain.
Release Date: 10th April 2006
Record Label: Rough Trade
Words By: Sarah Bates
