Moldy Peaches

  • Moldy Peaches
  • The Moldy Peaches (Rough Trade / Sanctuary) 2001 

Naïveté (willful and otherwise) has provided a gentle alternative to macho rock at least back to the late-’60s Shaggs. But childlike innocence made by adults isn’t the innocence of children—a dichotomy underscored by New York’s Moldy Peaches. The sweet melodies Adam Green and Kimya Dawson apply to breakfast cereal characters, Duran Duran and cartoons also carry appallingly crude lyrics about sex (“Downloading Porn With Davo”) and drugs (“Who’s Got the Crack”). As the casually played music wanders from mild folk-rock to Beck-like rap and a spot-on Beasties parody, the self-conscious vulgarity of lines like “who’m I gonna stick my dick in” unpleasantly laces an otherwise tasty apple with needless pins.

[Ira Robbins]