Album review: Our Broken Garden – Golden Seas
Many years ago, at the end of the eighties, there was a band called All About Eve which played beautiful yet haunting melodies with a classical bent. A trio fronted by an attractive, slightly hippyish woman with a stunning, plaintive voice, their commercial success was fairly short lived at around three years (peaking with the astonishing ‘Martha’s Harbour’). Why I am I telling you this? Because when I heard the first bars of ‘The Departure’, the opening track on ‘Golden Sea’ for a moment I was whisked back in time! You see Denmark’s Our Broken Garden happen to be a trio fronted by an attractive, slightly hippyish woman (Anna Bronsted) with a stunning, slightly plaintive voice who play beautiful yet haunting melodies.
Musically the songs are quiet and soft but quite varied. There is a classical bent to the majority of them and violins and piano feature heavily, but there’s also the tribal beats of ‘Garden Grow’, the dancey vibes of ‘Share’ and the rockier ‘Warriors Of Love’ which slowly builds, adding layers of instruments including military drums. Lyrically there are dark undertones hidden amongst the beautiful vocals; make my lips bleed if you have to/throw me naked on the floor sings Anna on ’Garden Grow’.
There’s not really anyone else doing this kind of thing right now, except maybe PJ Harvey in one of her more melancholic moments and Bat For Lashes, but they have a much more gothic feel, so ‘Golden Sea’ is a breath of fresh air, and it really is stunning. 4/5
Mark Cousens
www.myspace.com/ourbrokengarden
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