Garden Ruin

Calexico

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 11, 2006)
• Original Release Date: April 11, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Quarter Stick
• ASIN: B000EOTUY4
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,528 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Sometimes the worst thing you can do is be very consistently great with your art. Calexico's failure to rise beyond cult status can perhaps be attributed to the fact that their albums are such subtle Whitman Samplers of Tex-Mex-and-kitchen-sink tastefulness. Garden Ruin, the group's poppiest album to date, just might change their socio-economic standing for the better. It's produced by JD Foster, but none of the things you love about Calexico--the sun-baked guitar, smoky vocals, mariachi horns, woozy lyrics--have left. Those elements are just grafted to crispier, more carefully delineated harmonies and multi-tracked backing vocals higher in the mix. By the album's end, on the slow-burning anthem "All Systems Red," Joey Burns buzzes and howls with a force never shown before on album. It's what Sigur Ros might sound like if they came from Arizona, and it's truly excellent. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description

This is a more accessible album than previous efforts. Where the open blue skies of the landscapes they chronicled before were tempered by the smoky dark blues of their jazz influences, "Garden Ruin" is musically brighter. Lyrically too, the album takes a left turn in which contemporary rather than mythical America is addressed. Put succinctly, "Garden Ruin" is where Calexico fill those dusty, empty landscapes they documented with a big, big sound.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Toned down "exico," but the "Cal" works just fine on its own, January 7, 2007

By	Dirk Pratt (Always here, sometimes there) - See all my reviews

Sometimes bands make a big change and it just leaves you thinking "Why, why?!" This time out, after a strong, pleasing EP with Iron & Wine, Calexico decided to emphasize the "north of the border" sound and de-emphasize the horns that gave them such a tantalizing Southwestern flavor. In writing, this sounds like a disaster - "the Calexico horns," as they are often called, are a key part of the appeal - but once the album was given time to find a spot in listeners' hearts, the more straight-forward pop-song format worked extremely well. Calexico still manages to write dark, dramatic songs with an emphasis on the cinematic and the exotic. The songs are just slightly more accessible this time around.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fine release from a more conventional calexico, March 11, 2007

By	fluffy, the human being. (forest lake, mn) - See all my reviews

gone, for the most part, are the cutting-edge/spaghetti western instrumentations that made previous calexico albums so fresh and wonderful; but that's not to say this is an unworthwhile recording. far from it. this stands on its own as a finely crafted set of rock/pop songs. no depression magazine selected this as the 13th best album of 2006 and i won't argue with that (it belongs 'somewhere' in the top 30 i would say). fans of the more adventuresome calexico albums might find this an unrewarding release, but take it for what it is: excellent songcraft. nothing wrong with that.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars slightly dull, May 5, 2006

By	goodo23 (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews

Its a shame when a band changes tact for the worse, but I cant help but give them credit for trying, what do you do when you've released 5 or 6 albums/ep's all along the same line and you start to get a touch bored with the style you've honed to perfection, you go in to the studio with a different producer and you experiment, this one "I think" fizzed and died soon after conception.
you can only hope that the next one rises from the bland ashes of this release.