Day 328: Zero 7 – The Garden

I liked the album that I listened to a week ago on day 321 so much that I thought I’d go for more of the same today, I was doing arts and crafts and wanted something mellow and atmospheric in the background. I chose Zero 7’s third album, The Garden.

Album cover courtesy of Atlantic Records

The album was released in 2006 after being recorded in the countryside in Somerset, featuring vocals from Sia, Henry Binns and the Swedish folk singer José Gonzalez. It peaked at number 4 on the UK albums chart and earned the duo a nomination for a Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album.

Zero 7 feels like what I’ve been missing from my rotation: it’s something to put on that couldn’t really be called chillout music, it’s a bit too sophisticated than that, but it’s definitely music to chill out to. The sunny, happy sound is apparently a sea change from their second album which saw them embracing a more melancholic style, but this one is occasionally so peppy that it feels more like pop than just electronica. The songs with José Gonzalez are a little bit different, and I’d love to hear an album with just his vocals with Zero 7, as the songs with him are very clearly my high points of the album.

I’d say the weakest point of the album are the lyrics, which lack a bit of the intricacy that the songs have, but that doesn’t really take away my enjoyment of it. It’s not quite ambient, it’s not quite something to focus on either, but it’s a feel-good album to listen to when you’re doing something else. The Garden gets a 7.5/10.