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Jul 11, 2011The music is also catchy and a little distorted, with rhythms that lag and melodies that bloom briefly before they dead-end into monotone. The strongest knock against Gardens & Villa is that the band seems too content to linger in that slow, spacey zone, instead of hitting the highs that songs like "Black Hills" and "Thorn Castles" can reach.
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Jul 28, 2011Their self-titled debut is filled with unexpected flourishes: a spiky Britpop guitar-riff here, a 1980s synth-refrain there; its influences are all over the board--and delightfully so.
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Jul 22, 2011Where at their best, Gardens & Villa may recall the harmonies of Local Natives and the hazy qualities of The Walkmen, they are clearly not (yet) at the level of either of those bands.
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Aug 2, 2011There are enough moments on this debut to make you think that Gardens & Villa might offer an even more satisfying emotional connection on its next album, with or without the flute.
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Jul 11, 2011If the ambiguous quality of their sound sometimes makes it hard to become emotionally invested in Gardens & Villa, in Lynch, they're blessed with a singer who has remarkable presence and poise.
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Q MagazineAug 16, 2011Halcyon haze from Californian flute-toters. [Sept. 2011, p. 110]
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Under The RadarAug 5, 2011Soaked in reverb and effects, the album reads mystical in both sound and title. [Jul 2011, p.85]
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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.
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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.
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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]
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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]
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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.
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Jul 11, 2011Unfortunately, there's an underlying feeling of insincerity. More often than not, the lyrics are literal interpretations of song titles.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.