Sometimes the past comes back to haunt or surprise you. The title of this record refers to the neglected gardens of abandoned buildings and is a metaphor for some 'ghost' demo recordings from early in this band's career that were rediscovered on a misplaced hard drive.
The older and wiser duo of Mark Sasso and Casey Laforet of Ontario, Canada decided to work on them for their sixth album. In other words, these are new songs based on old ideas. (By the way, Elliott Brood is actually a trio - the third member is Stephen Pitkin).
They call it "fuzzed-up roots music" which denotes their core sound of grizzled alt.country. This pretty well describes the opening tracks - 'Til The Sun Comes Up Again and Dig A Little Hole but this is far from the whole story.
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For instance, 2 4 6 8 is more akin to mainstream rock while the electronic effects for the brief penultimate track Searching denote an experimental bent that is nowhere in evidence on the pretty love song (For The Girl) that closes the record.
The overall mood is both confused and sleepy but the gentle melodies and wistful harmonies give a general feeling of reassurance. This makes it clear that the band were fortunate to find these tracks and right to preserve the songs for posterity.
Elliott Brood's website
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