Every summer, bands release albums in the hopes that they will find commercial and critical success as the soundtrack to the season. Most albums fall a little bit short of such success, while select others create something that perfectly embodies the spirit of summer. Gardens & Villa’s new self-titled debut album is one of the latter.
“Gardens & Villa” is, quite simply, excellent from the very first song. “Black Hills,” the first song on the CD, sets the tone with a strolling beat, great melody and vocal harmonies reminiscent of Fleet Foxes and Local Natives. As with much of the rest of the songs in the set, “Black Hills” shows a reverence for nature: “Up on the mountain we climb / We watch the seas rise so high.”
From there, the band moves on to “Cruise Ship,” a dark and sultry tune, before gifting listeners with “Thorn Castles,” an ode to the magic of childhood which will encourage smiles for listeners and is one of the true gems of this album.
“Thorn Castles” tells the story of childhood romance in what must be the sweetest song of the summer so far. After receiving instructions from his mother to pick blackberries, the boy goes to his friend’s house and, stretching to reach the doorbell, asks if she would like to come play with him in the thorn castles of the blackberry patch. The song moves on to describe camping out in a backyard and, finally, a first kiss.
After “Orange Blossom,” a super catchy song about an exotic love, and a slightly lackluster “Spacetime,” the band sends another gem the listener’s way.
“Chemtrails” is the longest, and perhaps the most beautiful song on the album. It’s slow and meditative, featuring piano, tasteful synthesizer accents and minimal drums which create a soundscape that makes the listener want to stare at the sky. In fact, the song itself is about the contrast between the tranquility of nature and modernization: “Flower petals on the highway / Jets fly,” the latter of which the song proceeds to reject: “I don’t really want to go home to places where they keep time.”
Gardens & Villa also manages to construct vocals that are a bit similar to another band that has garnered a fair amount of praise. At some points, the band sounds like what The Beatles may have sounded like if they had experimented with electronic music.
This outstanding album doesn’t let up from there. “Star Fire Power” is an anthem that encourages people, “Be your incision, be your new weapon, be your life savings and your loan.”
“Sunday Morning,” which starts off with a haunting wood flute and piano, is another song which rejects the fast-paced lifestyle of the city. The frontman sings of the contrast between the tranquility of sitting on a Sunday morning and the rush of a Monday morning: “Coffee, coffee / Off to their offices / Lawyers and clerks.”
The album closes out with two more strong songs. “Carizzo Plain” has a bit of old-West nostalgia to it, while “Neon Dove” is an epic closer which sends the listener out with a drum section that sounds distinctly African.
Gardens & Villa has done something special with its debut record. It has crafted a nearly perfect soundtrack to the summer which flows with musical maturity and restraint. The album also benefits from very smart songwriting.
Every song on the album sounds different. Inventiveness is not lacking here, and listeners can easily listen to this album over and over again without losing interest.
Stroll with “Chemtrails” and “Sunday Morning” in a garden or blast “Star Fire Power” and “Neon Dove” from the roof of a villa. Either way, “Gardens & Villa” soars.
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