Album review: Gardens & Villa – Dunes (Secretly Canadian)

For their second album ‘Dunes’, the Santa Barbara quintet have ditched the warm, surf-friendly climate of the west coast to record in a converted warehouse during a frozen winter in Michigan. Although it wasn’t an obvious relocation, the band have created a richer, more ambitious sound than the hazy psych-pop of their self-titled debut. Highpoint ‘Domino’ combines Prince-style funk with a catchy flute hook, while ‘Chysanthemums’ is a mercurial piano-led trip-hop ballad. Despite the quality lagging slightly towards the end, triumphs like The Cure-esque distorted guitars in ‘Echosassy’ and an intimate vocal from Chris Lynch on ‘Minnesota’ make ‘Dunes’ a twinkling, sonically adventurous winter soundtrack. .

8/10

DIG IT? DIG DEEPER: YEASAYER, STILL CORNERS, SUMMER HEART

Published in Issue 92 of Clash magazine.