Review: Calexico - Garden Ruin
Garden Ruin comes out a year after the collaboration EP In the Reins with Iron & Wine. It is clearly evident with this release that Joey Burns was inspired by the songwriting values of Sam Beam. He even states that Beam was a driving force in pushing his vocals further than usual during an interview with Pitchfork. From my standpoint In the Reins was one of my most treasured releases from 2005 as it took the talent and grace of Calexico and paired it with beautiful lyrics and melody.
From the onset "Cruel" makes it immediately becomes clear that Calexico's dive into straight-up songwriting is a succcess. It mixes catchy melody and a standard song structure with numerous trademark Calexico qualities such as tasteful unique drumming and spaceous breaks.
Albumn stand-outs such as "Deep Down" showcase a passionate vocal performance from Burns while "All Systems Red" builds a haunting haunting epic that swells to beautiful car crash ending.
More traditional Calexico sounds are still presented on songs like "Roka" which features a combination of English and Spanish lyrics featuring Amparo Sanchez. The only potential failure might be "Letter to Bowie Knife" attempting to be charged rocket that never quite lanuches.
It's sad that Garden Ruin will likely get panned in the media (although Pitchfork offered a favourable review) as people seem less inclined to allow excentric bands move to less experimental sounds. I remember Low's The Great Destroyer getting equal treatment just because they turned up their guitars and made a rock album. I am in favour of bands evolving and changing and Garden Ruin is a positive direction for Calexico.
Rating: 4/5