THE chirpy manner of Adam Green's new album Gemstones belies the dark lyrical content therein, writes Matthew Blythe.

Released at the end of last month, it's full of jaunty numbers that wouldn't be out of place on Burt Bacharach's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid soundtrack.

But songs like Down On The Street and He's The Brat have the same kind of up close grit as portrayed by the likes of The Pogues and Leonard Cohen.

The clip-clop patter of the latter bounce along to lines like, "I'm mopping up blood stains from a transfusion".

It's out now on Rough Trade Records followed by a single, Emily, on Monday, February 7, which Adam Green will be pushing around the UK on a 21-date tour this month.

Adam Green's last dates in the UK were with Babyshambles at the special request of Pete Doherty, whom he met in New York in 2003. He has also toured with the likes of The Libertines, Badly Drawn Boy, Ben Kweller and The Strokes.

Newport pop fans will be split between two dates: Saturday, February 5, in the Barfly, Cardiff, and the Fleece, Bristol, on Sunday, February 6.

Still only 23, Gemstones is Adam Green's third solo record and is as good an example as any of his singular song-writing vision and plaintive tenor voice, enjoying his own elegant melodies and playful pop arrangements.

"These songs are all road-tested, and I've been playing them on tour for the past year," he said. "The standard thing is that you're not supposed to play the songs live until the record's already out.

"But it's exciting to keep adding my new songs to the set, and I think it makes for better records."

His previous releases include his 2002 lo-fi solo debut Garfield and last year's highly acclaimed orchestrabacked Friends of Mine.

The former release marked his first recording in a professional studio, augmenting his plaintive, sexy croon with sophisticated string arrangements that enhanced his increasingly accomplished song-writing. Friends of Mine also spawned a surprise hit in Jessica, a pointed yet poignant jab at showbiz superficiality - in the person of ubiquitous pop icon Jessica Simpson.

The video received substantial MTV airplay. Adam Green was once one half of popular indie pop duo Moldy Peaches, the band that supported The Strokes on their first Uk tour, which called on Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff circa 2000.

He was 14 when he and partner Kimya Dawson joined forces to form the Moldy Peaches.

By the time the duo went on indefinite hiatus in 2001, they'd captivated critics and won fans around the world, while propelling New York's "anti-folk" scene to international prominence.

"I was still a teenager when we got our record deal with Rough Trade, so I was really living a double life," Green recalls. "On the one hand, I was touring the world and making albums, but on the other, my parents didn't really have any idea what I was doing.

"I come from a family where everyone has degrees. My dad's a professor of neurology at Columbia University, my mom's a psychiatrist who works at the Museum of Natural History, and my brother's an astrophysicist. "I'm absolutely the first person in my family to not go to college. To them, it was absurd that I had to do this other thing."

His obsession with this "other thing" has given us one of the best artists since The Strokes.

With each album he nears that Leonard Cohen-like greatness; he's already reached the likes of The Libertines and Badly Drawn Boy. Julian Casablancas of The Strokes was one of the first to notice Green's talents.

"It always amazes me how he can express such deep meaning with such twisted humour," he said. "Adam is eccentric and down-to-earth, with newfound technical proficiency over a wider spectrum of styles. I love it." Gemstones combines Green's surreal lyrics with a punchy, rock-oriented sound that reflects the input of his four-man band, which toured with him behind Friends of Mine and joined him in the studio to record the new album.

"This record's more melodic and more rhythmically complex than the last one, and there's more twists and turns and surprises inside of the songs," Green noted. "It's also more of a physical record. I think that comes from touring consistently with the same guys, and feeling like they can play the songs the way that I hear them in my head."