“Don’t Disturb the Garden” – More Like Trees
Alternative Cabaret
So this album is weird. That’s kind of the point of the first track, which is half skit and half cabaret masterpiece. The rest of the album bounces all over the place which makes it really hard to lock down what kind of genre you would call it. Really the only consistent thread is the vaguely vaudevillian atmosphere, which is why I settled on the terrible genre title I came up with. I don’t want this review to turn into a full track-by-track breakdown, but it would probably be necessary in order to actually get across how eccentric this album really is. Instead, I’m just going to try to note a few things that stand out to me.
The first thing I want to say is that I do not generally like rap. I respect the genre extremely, but it rarely matches with my listening habits for some reason or other. On Don’t Disturb the Garden, however, I thoroughly enjoy each and every one of the rap and rap-adjacent songs. I think that the reason for this is because it combines a form I don’t prefer with the most obscure of the genres I love, allowing it to truly stand out as unique and musically notable. The other thing that draws me in is that the line between the songs I’d consider rap and not is extremely blurry, showing that the melodious songwriting I align myself to is seen throughout the album. Ofttimes it feels like rap sticks around just a couple notes and focuses more on speed—note that this is coming from someone who doesn’t listen to it all that much, so I could be way off—so its nice to hear the strong points of the genre more in line with the strong points of other music I enjoy.
One of the other interesting things about this album is that it manages to maintain a fairly consistent and recognizable tone despite its wide variety of sounds. Only this album could pair beatboxing, accordian, and violin without any doubts about them belonging together. Part of the tone-setting is done through the skits that come up a few times. The over the top story and acting on the opening track paired with the fantastic song underneath set up this fantastical world full of seemingly contradictory moments so that they all feel in place. The middle skit (where beatboxing is at its best) is an impressive instrumental of sorts that accomplishes much the same goal through an extreme example rather than through an overarching narrative. The final track is titled as a skit, yet it hardly falls into the same category. Instead its a song that is about as opposite as possible in every way from the first track. These tracks work to hammer home that Don’t Disturb the Garden is not like any other album out there.
Is an album worth listening to simply because it’s different? Some days I’d argue yes, others no. Don’t Disturb the Garden avoids that problem though by being an enjoyable listen in addition to just being out there. My favorite songs are the title track and “Will” but there are no clear weak links among the rest of the tracks. I might not always be in the mood to hear this album, but I certainly won’t forget it.
Koda Music 