Music Reviews

So… This new The Garden album? Well… It’s alright lol.

Now that we got the unnecessary suspensful intro out of the way – this New Garden album is actually quite good. I was originally dreading the release of this thing as I did not really enjoy any of the teaser tracks the band put out for this thing – the sort of forgetable „Freight Yard“ was just okay, Orange Country Punk Rock Legend was, at least at the time just too goofy and all over the place (a quality of the song which I know funily enough enjoy) and „Chainsaw the Door“ didn’t leave much of an impression either (although that is like my top 3 song from this album now)- needles to say, my expectations were really low for this new album. My fears were further confirmed once the actual album came out and 4 songs in I had yet to really necessarily enjoy anything – that luckily broke once the fifth song, the title track, kicked in and it felt like I was listening to a whole different project – from here on out things did fortunately turn for the better (although nothing really managed to top said title track).

To dissect this album more in depth we have the opener „Haunted House on Zillow“ which is only a minute long and still manages to be too long for its good – credit where credit’s due, it sets the tone for the first few songs and I guess the rest of the album pretty well, however that doesn’t mean the song itself nor the tone is all that pleasant. The followup „Oc93“ has a solid punk aesthetic and an okay chorus, however that’s literally like the only thing the song has going for it – it really feels longer than it actually is which usually in The Garden songs it’s the other way around. ¨Puerta de Limonisa¨ exists just to fill in the runtime, removing the song changes zero things with the album. ¨Freight Yard¨ is still kind of a meh song, that’s like the one single which I’m still not super crazy about. As I said alredy the title track ¨Horseshit on Route 66¨ has no business going this hard especially after the mixbag that is the first few song of this album. ¨What Else Could I Be But a Jester¨ is a decent followup to the last song, mainly because it doesn’t go for the same formula the first 4 song go and switches things up for a more harsher distorted electronic sound that really reminds of their last album which is probably the best compliment I can give this song. Just wish it was longer. The next song ¨X in the DIrt¨ kind of reminds me of the first 4 songs but for some reason this one actually works. Don’t really have much else to say about it, fairly decent. ¨Orange Country Punk Rock Legend¨ sticks out in this album like a sore thumb but it’s just so goofy that it works. ¨Chainsaw the Door¨ is a song that grew on me probably the most – the melody is super fun and the song is just super nice to the ears, the guitars with the electronics mix really well together and it’s overall just a pleasant listen. The last two tracks ¨Squished Face Slick Pig Living in a Smokey City¨ and ¨At the Campfire¨ are both decent. The former of the two having a pretty decent atmosphere and serving as an okay transition into the last track, which maybe isn’t the most ear-catching song of the album but still manages to wrap things up nicely making the album feel like a whole expirience (plus I enjoy the 2 second freakout on which the album ends).

So yeah, not much else to say here, if you enjoyed The Garden up to this point (especially their earlier work from what I’ve been told) then you’re probably gonna find some level of enjoyment out of this.

-favorite tracks: title track, What Else Could I Be But a Jester, X in the Dirt, Orange Country Punk Rock Legend, Chainsaw the Door, At the Campfire

-least favorite tracks: the first four with the exception of maybe Oc93

Light 7/10