Garden Tigers

Rochester MN-based Garden Tigers is a cosmic-country solo project that sounds at times like a twenty-piece ensemble. Blending elements of Americana, psychedelia, metal, goth, electronica, and good ol’ red-white-and-blue-blooded rock and roll, these seven songs embark an exploratory quest to find a place where such disparate elements can coexist. The results are at times impressive, with sufficient moments across the album suggesting that Garden Tigers have sufficient mastery of their influences to blend them seamlessly into wholly original ideas. At other times the results are jarring, with the sounds clashing and resisting like oil and water. 

 

Unsurprisingly, the best moments across these songs occur when the playing is comfortable and not trying too hard to accomplish something the music doesn’t feel naturally inclined to achieve. “Tidal Wave” is a rollicking fist-pumper that takes John Cougar Mellencamp on a magic carpet ride; “Skies of Copenhagen” gives The War on Drugs a downer and purrs its way across the Dark Side of the Moon. Album highlight “The World” creeps around a Depeche Mode-esque deadpan, coloring in the edges with Phosphorescence. 

 

Some of the record’s rough edges could be smoothed over with a little more time and care in the writing process or stronger decision-making in the mixing stages, but overall the production quality is supremely high. The quantity of quality sounds across these songs makes for a luxurious listen, and generally the songs offer a balanced and professional sheen. Sometimes Garden Tigers relies on that production value more than craft, as in the freakout noise rock to close opener “The Howler” or the sidestep into metal during choruses of “The Black Pyramid.” While this experimentation is laudable, it occasionally belies a less-than-solid foundation upon which to experiment.

 

More often than not, the foundation of this music is as traditional as can be. The adept production, gorgeous sonic flourishes, and structural experimentation expand and complicate the mythology of Americana in new and exciting ways.