Adam Green’s upcoming feature length film is the re-working of Aladdin with the expected, Adam Green twist. His latest effort on film is his second behind 2011’s The Wrong Ferrari. However it takes a similar DIY ethos as it takes from the previous magic carpets to crash head on into Green’s psychedelic, space infused re-working. Unsurprisingly, his soundtrack matches the ludicrous theme – but is there more than just humour to it all?

Green has previously surfaced as one half of The Moldy Peaches, since then his solo career has taken ups and downs through his satiric, witty, whimsical folk style – dealing with drug habits, prostitution and every other taboo in an unashamed, honest fashion. From Garfield right through to his previous release, 2013’s collaboration with Binki Shapiro; each time Green has been trying to prove something new – perhaps to take him with more sincerity. His effort with Shapiro would certainly imply this but ultimately, Green has always been the point of reference for your subconscious urges. His lyrics have always struck heavily with dark humour, this often falling into the path of being exceptionally comedic. However, what he has been talking about are exceptionally sincere issues, just in the blanket of fun. So why should we expect any different from Aladdin? Is it all just a disguise?

The soundtrack itself is nineteen tracks long, although six of these are short interjections of humorous snippets of the film dialogue. Unsure whether these are relevant in the soundtrack, they offer a few things which most Adam Green fans will appreciate. The logical answer would be that it gives the audience the ability to place the songs within the context of the film, giving it a dialogue reference point. However, what Adam Green worshippers may see is that it plays on Green’s ability to toy with humour. Each interjection is jarring. It slows the pace of the LP but ultimately, the script that is spoken is funny. ‘God = Humans’ for example, is a complete mock of conspiracy theorists that fall in line with Tom Cruise’s scientific understandings. ‘Techno-Fungal Insect Species’ is just as bonkers and ridiculous as you would expect from an Adam Green film – ultimately to the average listener, these dialogue pieces become irritating. It slows the play of the actual music within the soundtrack. Aladdin is not necessarily recommended for a single play through.

Musically speaking, it does exactly what you want from an Adam Green album. Not necessarily built around typical song structures, it takes from the more abstract part of Adam Green’s mindset. ‘Fix My Blues’, that opens the album, merrily rolls along in the lacklustre, lethargy with Green’s dry humour harnessed on top: “Your breasts are like two wrists / That I’ve handcuffed to my dick / In a subculture of love and refraction.” It’s explicit and innuendos are riddled throughout the song; how it fits into the context of Aladdin is uncertain but you can be sure that it’s not to have a theme park ride built around it at Disney World. ‘Nature of The Clown’ picks the tempo up slightly; pointing towards the Gemstones era of Green’s previous work, it packs in a funk-driven bassline that harnesses his baritone like a life-support machine.

‘Someone Else’s Plan’ helps to affirm that Green has the ability to put together a solid, sincere set of songs that utilise his wit and humour. It outlines the fact that no song on this album is necessarily bad. In the context of the film, they revolve lyrically around aliens and technology, the essential subject matters of Aladdin. It’s quite marvellous how he can incorporate his understanding of lust and transfer it upon the mantle of aliens but, as you’d expect from a man such as Adam Green, there is a no hold barred policy and ultimately, this acts as the mode of transport to tie together such themes. ‘Time Chair’ falls upon heady 60s psychedelia; breakdowns see guitars fall into a Jefferson Airplane field with spaced-out effects, vocals become distant and Green apparently begins to drag his film into a serious self-aware concept: “Hells yeah, I’m polluting the game.” Now it gets really interesting. Is this the point where we take Green as an exceptionally self-conscious writer? He presents the prowess to toy with popular culture and mythical understandings such as Aladdin and yes, ‘pollute the game’ in his own, significant style. His symbolic reference points begin to shine in the shadow of Reed and Cohen, he can tackle quite bullish themes and ride them in a very honest, accessible fashion.

‘Never Lift A Finger’ follows, with its melancholic chime standing out as a curious inclusion. The fact it follows such a profound comment in the aforementioned ‘Time Chair’ gives it an eerie, hindsight feel. “Things are not so horrible / Now you’re not my oracle,” obviously it should be mentioned not to read too far into the lyricism as it is part of a film soundtrack, however you can’t help but shift the feeling that Adam Green is making comments outside from the film too. ‘Me From Far Away’ finds itself as the most complete song on the album. Utilising a more conventional song structure, it is filled with huge orchestrated sounds, obscure Krautrock and swelling synth lines.

As the album comes to a close, songs find their way back to Green’s previous sense of serious honesty – ‘Do Some Blow’ is as literal as the title would suggest. In a similar fashion to ‘Drugs’, it plays on every notion of slang, all the while it is warped with 80s synth giving it that real space-age feel. Green has taken his taboo habits to the far flung galaxies. It’s hard not to take Aladdin seriously to a certain extent; whether this is what Green wants is uncertain. ‘Phoning In The Blues’, ‘Someone Else’s Plan’ and ‘Time Chair’ all prove the musical ability that Green possesses – not only to play around with lyrics but also to find himself with those singer/songwriter comparisons that really are highly esteemed along with the likes of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. Interspersed with film dialogue, it seems almost that Green has had the foresight to help disguise his previous themes within the context of his own film. His disguises for his music have always been prominent, honest lyrics behind the dishonesty of some other alter-ego or project – social commentary dressed up and he keeps us guessing.
Tom Churchill

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