Gardens & Villa - Music for Dogs

Gardens & Villa
Music for Dogs
2015

Gardens & Villa have found a way to exploit the more psychedelic side of electropop. The newest record Music for Dogs seeks to explore the perils of urban decay, reliance on technology and the overarching loneliness that comes from our segmented culture. If it seems like they are tackling deep issues it's because the most certainly are, to varied results. There is a couple of bands (De Lux comes to mind) that have attempted to take up the David Byrne torch and run with the social commentary which is clearly one of the major aims of this record. The problem comes in that it all comes across as contrived, we get it people are on their phones to much and the city looks like shit, what is the point? If your aim is to show a mirror up to society everything has to be so tight and dialed in that your commentary and music cut through whatever noise is also out there. This album simply does not do that. For an album railing against technology the synth is featured on almost every track, and an effected voice (sounding eerily similar to Tame Impala) can be heard throughout. The music is a bit of a jumbled mess with thin drums providing almost no backbone that the message just gets lost.

There is little difference on most of the songs between album and chorus like on "I Already Do" which causes the song to drag on and on. Almost every track repeats the same musical lines over and over making this 36 minutes record sound like an hour. The bright spots however like "Maximize Results" do shine as electropop done at a very high level. But that shame shine does not continue and the album becomes only flashes of intriguing music and the rest just a misguided rally against some unknown ills. Music often is a buck against the system, but making that the complete point of a record just seems a bit misguided. Not the best offering from Gardens & Villa.

5 out of 10