Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Q MagazineAug 16, 2011Halcyon haze from Californian flute-toters. [Sept. 2011, p. 110]
-
Under The RadarAug 5, 2011Soaked in reverb and effects, the album reads mystical in both sound and title. [Jul 2011, p.85]
-
Aug 3, 2011The members of Gardens & Villa may spend a lot of time outdoors, but they're probably listening to Human League on headphones as they tiptoe through the thorns.
-
Jul 21, 2011If they were a little less self-conscious about their style and more comfortable with being just a good pop band, they'd have a great album in them.
-
UncutJul 19, 2011For all their poppy ambition, the highlights are probably "Chemtrails," a wicked fuzz of gospel narco-bliss, and "Sunday Morning," a smacked-up take on "Penny Lane." [Aug 2011, p.89]
-
Alternative PressJul 11, 2011Other than the booming, Devo-ish vocal effects on "Spacetime," these songs aren't pushing the envelope--but you should still tear it open and look inside. [Aug 2011, p.114]
-
Jul 11, 2011The back half meanders through woozy loungers like "Chemtrails" and "Sunday Morning" before wrapping up with the spindly, tom-heavy "Neon Dove," which breathes just enough life into the pacing to make you feel like you've listened to something complete by the time the percussion's abrupt exit signals the record's resolution.
-
Jul 11, 2011Unfortunately, there's an underlying feeling of insincerity. More often than not, the lyrics are literal interpretations of song titles.
-
Jul 11, 2011Gardens & Villa, though, is an album that casts light on its creators' vices as much as their virtues, and, for all the honesty that implies, remains a drawn-out suggestion that the band ought one day to generate a long player more worthy of their principles. Still, not bad for a first go.
-
Jul 11, 2011The lone connective thread found in Gardens & Villa is that of its dedication to build a vigorous gamut of synths. As it turns out, once that defining element is out of the mold, you're left with skeletal compositional biases that amount to very little.
-
Sep 20, 2011The album tries really hard to be the soundtrack to both your trip to the disco and your trip down the rabbit hole, but doesn't offer any particularly compelling reasons for why you should make it either.
-
Jul 11, 2011There are two stellar songs on Gardens & Villa, songs that show a ton of promise, but also make the rest of the uninspired filler on the album pale in comparison.