Following their 2013 album
The Life and Times of a Paperclip
, identical twin brothers
Wyatt
and
Fletcher Shears
toured the world and released numerous recordings under their respective solo projects,
Enjoy
Puzzle
. Those projects (particularly
) are more synth-based than the no wave-influenced punk of
the Garden
, and the duo's
Epitaph
debut
Haha
finds them incorporating more electronic and hip-hop elements into their sound. The lo-fi guitar noise of their earlier recordings is generally replaced by atmospheric synths and more cleanly produced bass guitar; "Egg" even has a rhapsodic piano melody. The most startling addition to their sound is the crashing drum'n'bass breakbeats on tracks like "Jester's Game" and "Cloak," recalling punk/jungle hybrids like
Atari Teenage Riot
but without the politically charged fury. The songs here are far more developed than the simplistic one-line jokes of their previous album; unlike that one, there are only a couple of songs on here ("Crystal Clear," "We Be Grindin'") whose lyrics primarily consist of the title repeated over and over. When the group sticks to bass guitar and drums, as on "Vexation," there's more of a
Cramps
/early
B-52's
flavor than before.
The Garden
definitely benefit from the switch to a bigger label, as their songwriting skills, musicianship, and production values have equally improved. Even with its flippant title,
is easily the most ambitious, fleshed-out album
has produced so far, and shows the remarkable amount of progress the duo has made. ~ Paul Simpson