Customer Reviews

The Garden

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I really enjoyed what Zero 7 did on the "Simple Things" album, especially the b-sides, so I was especially curious about the b-sides on "The Garden". "Futures", the album's opener had a sound that was somewhat familiar, but as the cd progressed, it was almost as if I purchased the wrong cd by mistake. Keep in mind, I have yet to procure a copy of "When It Falls", Zero 7's sophmore effort, so maybe I missed some significant step in their "evolution". Perhaps I expected an extension of the "Simple" album, regardless of my expectations, this cd came out sounding similar to Telepopmusic, Royksopp, or Luke. There is nothing wrong with those groups, in fact I love Luke, if you have never heard of them, check them out, they are on the Music For Dreams recod label. Never the less, I did not expect this to sound so different from their original sound, but I will say, some songs do contain certain aspects that are similar to the "Simple" days, but they are just too few of them.

I think I have covered most of the negative aspects of the album, now for the positive, the b-sides. "Thistles", features Sia on vocals with Henry Binns adding a few light vocals of his own, this song is not too melow and not too up beat, good song. "Inaminute", is an instrumental that is more or less 10 seconds short of 5 minutes, this is the best song on the whole album, this song would fit in perfecly with the songs from "Simple Things". The final song and last b-side is entitled "Dreaming", Sia and Henry Binns are once again featured on vocals, the song is a whole lot more melow than anything on the album, it really reminds me of Royksopp, good song none the less. It's almost funny how the b-sides were probably better than the other songs featured on the album, but that's just my perspective.

In my opinion, "Inaminute" was reason enough to buy the album, and after a few listens I really enjoyed it but that may not be the case for everyone else. The album was very different from what I expected, so if you harbour any reservations about buying this or not, track down some audio samples and judge for yourself, regardless, "Inaminute" is definitely a must buy if you enjoyed Zero 7 in their early days, it is also featured on the "Throw It All Away" cd single.