The Garden

The Garden, the project of Los Angeles' twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears, debuted with rather inept EPs such as The Garden (2012), Everything Is Perfect (2012), and Rules (2013), plus the live 14-song Rainbows & Happiness (2012), which debuted The Life and Times of a Paperclip and The Apple. In 2012 Wyatt Shears also started releasing easy-listening music under his moniker Enjoy.

The Garden's first album, The Life and Times of a Paperclip (2013), is much better produced than the EPs, and therefore a better introduction to their witty and deviant punk-pop, establishing them as the Ween of the 2010s. Most of the songs are spastic hardcore bordering on math-rock and noise-rock, rebellious heirs to Polvo and Don Caballero. What stand out is the danceable and twangy The Apple, the formidable momentum of Grass and Charlie, and countless demented cabaret-tish miniatures like Vada Vada and The Life and Times of a Paperclip. The operation is positively quirky playful, and even sarcastic: I'm A Woman is a parody of Merseybeat just like Interrupt is a parody of country music and The Rocket is a parody of Burt Bacharach-esque pop ballads.

They stretch out a little bit more on Haha (2015). The melodic highlights are Egg, a piano-driven power-pop ditty, and All Smiles Over Here, halfway between Devo and hip-hop (both lasting a whopping three minutes); but the album also counts on Haha, halfway between glam-rock and movie soundtracks of the 1960s, and on the punk verve of Vexation and Red Green Yellow. This Could Build Us a Home is their stab at dance-pop, and Cloak is their stab at rap-rock. Gift is a zany Frank Zappa-esque skit.

Mirror Might Steal Your Charm (2018) contains only 12 songs, none shorter than two minutes. True hardcore shows up only in Stallion, and, partially, in the frenzied metal-hop a` la Death Grips of A Message For Myself. The new level of sophistication is well represented by Banana Peel, which seamlessly blends a bunch of odd samples (including a helicopter) into a semi-rap structure. The robotic Devo-esque Good News relies on a beat that is mainly a ringing phone and includes a barking dog. Nonetheless, album contains two serious stabs at mainstream pop: Call The Dogs Out and especially the bouncy closer No Destination (their longest song yet at four minutes). The best combination of the two trends (the production and the melody) is perhaps the breezy pop of the multifaceted Shameless Shadow, again with Zappa-esque overtones. Make a Wish seems to poke fun at rap music, and Voodoo Luck seems to poke fun at 1990s grunge.

The fun is largely gone on Kiss My Super Bowl Ring (2020). A bit of screamo shows up in A Struggle and the refrain of The King of Cutting Corners is pure hardcore, but both songs quickly decay in something else, typically more radio-friendly. The psychotic rap-rock of Sneaky Devil and A Fool's Expedition act as the emotional center of mass. On the rap side, Lurkin' is their most conventional and professional rap song yet. On the pop side, Hip Eject is another catchy ditty. The most sophisticated song is Kiss My Super Bowl Ring, which manages to mix folk and drum'n'bass.

The songs are generally more aggressive on Horseshit on Route 66 (2022). Past the rather trivial zombie-hardcore rigmarole OC93, which is unusually monodimensional but certainly catchy (silly catchy), the album throws a sequence of musical bombs, starting with the energetic Brazilian-tinged rap-rock Horseshit on Route 66 and culminating with the visceral singalong psychodrama Orange County Punk Rock Legend. They fuse hip-hop, metal and industrial elements in What Else Could I Be But a Jester?, while X in the Dirt straddles noise-rock and drum'n'bass and adds a childish melodic refrain. Freight Yard pushes the envelop with frantic jazz rhythm and dissonant guitar. The poppy song du jour is Chainsaw the Door, reminiscent of gothic rock of the 1980s, and the danceable song du jour is At the Campfire in the style of 1980s funk-punk. Wyatt Shears has become one of the most articulate guitarists and bassists of his generation.