The Garden (album)
| The Garden | ||||
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| Studio album by John Foxx | ||||
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Publication |
1981 |
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| Label (s) | Metal Beat / Virgin Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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running time |
41:18 |
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| occupation |
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John Foxx |
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Studio (s) |
The Garden |
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The Garden is the second solo album by former Ultravox singer John Foxx . It was released on Virgin Records in 1981 .
Emergence
After his first solo album Metamatic was released, Foxx set up his own recording studio called The Garden in a country house in Surrey . The name of the studio and the name of the album come from several factors. For one thing, Foxx had been raised Catholic and thus came into contact with Holy Mass and Gregorian chants at an early age . On the other hand, Foxx had traveled a lot after the publication of Metamatic and had studied rural England, its architecture and history, and lived in Italy for a while.
In October 1980 Foxx released the single Miles Away to bridge the waiting time for the new album , which was not released on any regular album. This single anticipated the break with the overcooled electro on Metamatic . In contrast to the previous album Metamatic , in which no instruments were used except for a few bass tracks, Foxx worked for The Garden with guitar (electric and acoustic), bass, piano and percussion. The guitar was taken over by Robin Simon, who had already played for Ultravox in the 1970s and then for Magazine .
The cover design was carried out by the Ansell Sadgrove agency, using photographs by Peter Gilbert. The first edition was accompanied by a glossy booklet entitled "Church" containing texts and photographs by Foxx.
Track list
- Europe After the Rain (3:57)
- Systems of Romance (4:02)
- When I Was a Man and You Were a Woman (3:37)
- Dancing Like A Gun (4:10)
- Pater Noster (2:32)
- Night Suit (4:26)
- You Were There (3:51)
- Fusion / Fission (3:48)
- Walk Away (3:52)
- The Garden (7:03)
"The Garden" hit the UK charts on October 3, 1981, and stayed there for six weeks, reaching number 24 as the top spot. "Europe after the Rain" and "Dancing like a Gun" were released as singles. "Europe After The Rain" stayed in the UK singles charts for five weeks, reaching number 40. "Dancing Like A Gun" missed the Top 75.
The album was reissued in 1993, 2001 and 2008. Different bonus tracks were added in each case:
Reissue from 1993, Virgin
- Young Man (2:55)
- Dance With Me (3:33)
- A Woman on a Stairway (4:30)
- The Lifting Sky (4:46)
- Annexe (3:07)
- Wings and a Wind (5:19)
New edition from 2001, Edsel
- A Long Time (3:49)
- This Jungle (4:41)
- Swimmer 2 (3:31)
- Swimmer 1 (5:10)
- Young Man (2:53)
New edition from 2008, Edsel
- Swimmer II (5:16)
- This Jungle (4:44)
- Miles Away (3:19)
- A Long Time (3:51)
- Swimmer I (3:34)
- Fog (5:53)
- Swimmer III (5:27)
- Swimmer IV (3:58)
- Dance With Me (Early Version) (3:52)
- A Woman On A Stairway (Early Version) (5:02)
- Fusion / Fission (Early Version) (3:53)
- Miles Away (Alternate Version) (3:23)
reception
Allmusic classifies the album as "polished, epic post-punk of the finest variety" and compares it to albums by bands like U2 , Simple Minds and Echo & the Bunnymen . Trouser Press found that "Foxx's songwriting and love of metaphor were reaching new heights". Boomkat hears influences from Velvet Underground and Roxy Music and considers Foxx to be a "New Wave genius".
Web links
- The Garden on Discogs
- The Garden at Allmusic (English)
- Lyrics of The Garden on LyricWiki
- Metamatic.com - Official website of John Foxx
Individual evidence
- ^ John Foxx Q&A
- ↑ The Garden on QuietCity
- ↑ a b Chart Archive
- ^ Review on AllMusic
- ^ Review on Trouser Press
- ↑ Review on Boomkat ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
