Gardens & Villa left behind the gardens and the villas of its sunny Southern California home to record in a wintery, snow-filledMichigan town, where it found inspiration for its new album, “Dunes.”
The band’s sophomore release, “Dunes” was inspired by the snowy sand dunes in Benton Harbor, Mich. The change in environment – the first album was recorded in Oregon – is apparent in the group’s new album, which has a more mature, less experimental sound.
The opening song, “Domino,” starts off with the bansuri, an Indian bamboo flute, played by frontman Chris Lynch. It then incorporates the choppy, fast rhythm of the funky synth as well as keyboard beats and the background guitar in the song’s repetitive yet catchy chorus.
The combination of the flute and synth that Gardens & Villa featured on its first album continues throughout “Dunes.” The flute riff and unique rhythms meld together in a way that amplifies the band’s strange yet unforgettable choruses.
“Domino” flows into the second song, “Colony Glen,” which starts off with a vaguely ’80s-inspired beat and features Lynch’s voice as he sings, “Oh friends it’s been such a long time/ All these places came back to mind/ In the days when the living’s heavy/ She just left me there.”
Lynch brings an upbeat tone to a sad song about haunted memories and getting into trouble, incorporating the lyrics into the synth rhythm with his versatile vocal range.
Lynch also combines a happier beat with more morbid lyrics in the third track on the album, “Bullet Train.”
“The young die young if they work too hard,” Lynch sings. “Palm silhouettes magnetic rails to the stars/ Come and die young you were doomed from the start/ Young silhouette magnetic rails through the stars.”
The feel of the album’s lyrics, which have a more serious and somber tone, has changed from the last album. They are tinged with a little more heartbreak and a more serious perspective than can be found on the band’s debut album.
“Chrysanthemums,” the fourth song, also reveals Garden & Villa’s change of pace from its first album. It retains the band’s signature funky rhythms, but slows it down for a more mellow overtone. Lynch slowly croons the chorus in a high-pitched voice as a female voice harmonizes in the background.
“Echosassy” has the catchiest beat on the album with the repetitive, synthesized melody that Gardens & Villa does so well. It has noisier instrumentals, which appear more often than they did on the band’s first album. Although the beach-rock sound this song evokes was the inspiration for the group’s first record, “Echosassy” is the only song on “Dunes” that clearly contains this tone.
“Dunes” reflects how the band has grown. On the journey from Oregon’s recording studios to secluded, snowed-in Michigan, Gardens & Villa’s music developed from a mixed genre sound into deeper, well-rounded tunes, while still retaining its signature hip, synth beats.
Despite the changes on the new album, many of them unexpected, the group still has its easily recognized, unforgettable sound.
Gardens & Villa brings its chill and experimental melodies in its sophomore effort, “Dunes,” to a level that transcends the expectations of the generic acoustic indie band sound.