Rough Trade has released a 20th Anniversary reissue of Adam Green’s landmark 2005 album Gemstones to be released on December 12th, 2025. The album is available both on standard black vinyl and as a limited edition yellow vinyl with mirror-board sleeve.
“2005 was a crazy time – I was a wide-eyed 23 year old coming to terms with my newfound German pop-stardom – I was fronting a powerful band, the classic lineup of Steven Mertens, Parker Kindred, Nathan Brown, and Chris Isom – We had been touring all year, and we knew the songs inside-out before we recorded them. I was bringing along new cabaret influences of Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, Bertold Brecht, Chet Baker and The Doors – Never has an album so effortlessly poured out of me – there’s some powerful magic spells on there – I was in the right place, at the right time, and ‘Gemstones’ is the evidence I grabbed. There was an optimism in the air, before the nihilism that permeated the next album, ‘Jacket Full of Danger’, where I began to get swallowed by the void.” Adam Green
As intrinsic to the Manhattan soul as the rumble of the subway, the grime of the Lower East Side or the ornate baroque glamour of the midtown blocks housing Ghostbusters’ ghouls, Adam Green’s music is as timeless as New York itself. Echoing through the depths of its dark lore, yet still relevant on sidewalks washed clean by gentrification, the singer-songwriter’s music not only invokes his hometown, but it captures the unique confusion and connection of life within a city: the awkwardness and the adventure, the love affairs and the loneliness, the society and the separation.
His 2005 solo album Gemstones, a sort of musical reply to Bright Lights, Big City, is firmly rooted in the Big Apple, its rockabilly rhythms rattle with the L-Train, its melodies hit like a fresh cross street gust, but whether you’ve visited New York or not its brisk, affecting songs will resonate with anyone who knows what it is like to be alone amongst the crowd. Driven by Green’s beguiling baritone, from the album’s spinning, Wurlitzer-driven opener and title track ‘Gemstones’, via the chiming organs of ‘Over The Sunrise’, the irresistible rock’n’roll bop of ‘Emily’ and the bittersweet lament of ‘Losing On A Tuesday’, the record is as affecting as it is surreal. Fantastical imagery and linguistic twists that evoke an Escher-meets-Sesame Street version of city life, but beneath Green’s visions, guided by his playful melodies, is a warm beating heart of genuinely moving emotions.
Yes, Gemstones can be heady and intoxicating, careering with an apparent free abandonment, yet it is also a warm, reassuring and ultimately nourishing record. On its release, the album made Green a superstar in Germany as audiences resonated with this 21st-century ‘Threepenny Opera’ of intricate tales and bright tunes. Now, as Gemstones marks its 20th Anniversary with a new vinyl release, it is time for all of us to step back and truly appreciate this musical diamond.
Adam Green is a songwriter, filmmaker, visual artist, and poet whose work blends fleshy humor, heartbreak, and metaphysical surrealism into a genre all his own. As co-founder of the iconic antifolk band The Moldy Peaches, he helped define a generation of raw, emotionally candid music that continues to resonate globally. Since then, Green has released 11 solo albums, and In 2023 received a tribute album, Moping In Style, a testament to his influence across musical worlds which saw his songs covered by such friends and like-minded artists as Father John Misty, The Libertines, Frankie Cosmos, Devendra Banhart, Regina Spektor, Sean Ono Lennon, Ben Kweller, The Lemonheads, and more.
Green’s creative reach extends far beyond songwriting. The NY-based artist’s paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in galleries across the US, Europe, and Asia, including a landmark show at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland. Green has directed two full-length movies, including 2010’s ‘The Wrong Ferarri’ (the first feature film shot entirely on an iPhone), and Adam Green’s Aladdin, a 2016 hand-built fantasy epic which Buzzfeed called “the trippiest movie ever made.” Green’s recent work explores the interconnected mythology of his “Houseface” universe through poetry books and graphic novels, developing a distinct narrative world that spans disciplines and defies boundaries. Evident now with this reissue of Gemstones, his latest EP Falling Around and his upcoming 2026 live dates, Adam Green brings together not only his songs, but an entire universe — a celebration of lyricism, imagination, and the ecstatic strangeness of being alive.
Adam Green – ‘Falling Around’ (music video)
Adam Green
Gemstones
Album Track Listing:
Gemstones
Down on the Street
He’s the Brat
Over the Sunrise
Crackhouse Blues
Before My Bedtime
Carolina
Emily
Who’s Your Boyfriend
Country Road
Choke on a Cock
Bible Club
Chubby Princess
Losing on a Tuesday
Teddy Boys
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