Adam Green & Binki Shapiro - Self-Titled

The unusual foray I’ve been making into indie recently has led me to the new supercollab by the boringly-named Adam Green and the sickeningly-named Binki Shapiro; he’s one half of Ellen Page Soundtrack band The Moldy Peaches, she’s from ho-hum indie band Little Joy. Together they form this fairly pleasant ‘anti-folk’ album, according to its Wikipedia page, which is a moniker that has always irritated me, since it sounds as if it’s flaunting itself as some kind of movement as opposed to being inconsequential singer-songwriter rubbish that thinks it’s a movement. Like most relationship-focused twangly indie music, it’s frothy enough to leave you puking foam for about a week, and hails from that corner of the New York State of Mind that completely disgusts me, where aloof pretentiousness meets a self-aware “isn’t-life-great” mentality, but nonetheless, there’s enjoyment to be had here underneath all the twee, against which all cynicism remains super effective.

Well, I say it’s twee and frothy and all that, which makes it sounds as if this means that the subject material is happy-go-lucky, sunlit contentment, the kind of sound that can be heard in both of these indie darlings' previous outfits, but really the lyrical content’s more wan and wistful, sung out of two audibly pleasing vocal cords and cradled in a variety of acoustic instruments. The semi-narrative theme here is The Relationship - as in, y’know, that “it’s-complicated” up-and-down back-and-forth archetype that all couples around the world who believe themselves to constitute a ‘relationship’ love to relate to and even subconsciously kind of aspire to. That market is catered to here. In dealing with this theme, which is like the most standard topic for all modern music, I’d say that the album is a success. The duetting parts feel a little bit cheesy, but that’s the territory we’re in here, and besides, the cheese factor is diluted by the lyrics being not-terrible, elevating the duo above comparable She & Him levels of froth, which is the kind of boy-girl duetting we’re all used to. ‘Pity Love’ is a good one. The tales told in these songs never reach the depths of tragedy, or the highs of being joyously in love with another beautiful indiefuck like yourself, but it takes a sensible middle-ground option that sounds as if I’m calling the whole thing banal, but it’s not boring, it’s nice. And nice is good.

I should be finding some real problems enjoying this album, seeing as it’s a product of a world I have no wish to inhabit, and I’m not exactly in the know when it comes to this scene of model-beautiful strolling-in-the-park sort of music, but I do kind of enjoy it, to an extent, and it is fairly meritorious considering that it sounds as if it would be total drivel. It's a little sweet, that's part of its charm, but I wouldn't say it ever gets too saccharine. I think that what really steers it away from the chasm of mediocrity are the voices, the two sets of lovey-dovey lungs that pervade throughout. Saying that, it’s true that Shapiro’s voice is the far superior, and I’m glad that she gets a track or two to herself, like ‘Casanova’, where she gets all Roy Orbison on our country/western asses, and reminds me of Nicole Atkins. I love her voice; it’s got that necessarily adorable quality, but it also sounds tired and consciously weary, almost, y’know, like she means the shit that she’s singing about. It stands head and shoulders above her album-partner Adam Green, whose voice isn’t bad I guess, and at times it does sound like a self-conscious Lou Reed impersonator, but it has the ability to be loaded with a nice bassy sensation and yet sound strangely uninterested at the same time, which suits the hipstamatic-tinged universe that this album inhabits. I mean, from what I've heard, that’s what all this ‘anti-folk’ nonsense is about – playful but impassioned, jovial but lightly serious. And I can see the appeal in that.

This album’s one to play to your girlfriend/boyfriend if you want to display some sort of musical affection towards them but, secretly, you aren’t really into them. Not brilliant, but it represents a musical tide that could be worse.


Adam Green & Binki Shapiro - Pity Love