Garden Ruin
The first Calexico album with no instrumental tracks, a more direct indie rock record produced by JD Foster.
Calexico, 2006
- Released
- 11 April 2006
- Studio
- Wavelab Studio, Tucson, and Brooklyn Recording Studio, Brooklyn
- Label
- Quarterstick
- Producer
- JD Foster with Joey Burns and John Convertino
Garden Ruin was recorded at Wavelab in Tucson, where Craig Schumacher and Chris Schultz engineered, and at Brooklyn Recording Studio in New York, where Andy Taub and Yohei Goto recorded and Taub and Foster mixed. JJ Golden mastered it at Golden Mastering in Ventura, California. It is the first Calexico album with no instrumental tracks, and it sold 46,000 copies in the US as of 2009. Amparo Sanchez sings on Roka, Naim Amor plays electric guitar on Letter to Bowie Knife, and Rob Burger plays Hammond B3 on Cruel.
Pitchfork's Joe Tangari called it the most straightforward rock record they had made, with the horn sound moving from Ciudad Juarez to Los Angeles. He praised the harmonies on Panic Open String and Lucky Dime, noted that Roka comments on immigration, and called the closer All Systems Red epic. In 2011 a PopMatters writer said it did not work very well. Amazon rated it 90 out of 100. Cruel and Bisbee Blue were issued as singles.
Track listing
- Cruel3:59
- Yours and Mine2:30
- Bisbee Blue2:48
- Panic Open String4:09
- Letter to Bowie Knife3:06
- Roka3:45
- Lucky Dime2:33
- Smash3:45
- Deep Down4:31
- Nom de Plume3:19
- All Systems Red6:09
Personnel
- Joey Burns acoustic and electric guitar, vocals, piano, cello, banjo, Wurlitzer, glockenspiel, vibes, bass, organ, accordion
- John Convertino drums, percussion
- JD Foster producer, electric bass, Nashville-tuning guitar, backing vocals, horn arrangements
- Volker Zander electric bass, vibes
- Martin Wenk trumpet, glockenspiel, guitars, banjo
- Jacob Valenzuela trumpet
- Paul Niehaus pedal steel, electric and baritone guitar
- Nick Luca Hammond B3, electric jazz guitar, reverse Wurlitzer
- Amparo Sanchez vocals on Roka
- Naim Amor electric guitar on Letter to Bowie Knife
- Rob Burger Hammond B3 on Cruel
More from Calexico
Spoke (1996), The Black Light (1998), Hot Rail (2000), Feast of Wire (2003), Convict Pool (2004), In the Reins (2005), Carried to Dust (2008), Algiers (2012), Edge of the Sun (2015), The Thread That Keeps Us (2018), Years to Burn (2019), Seasonal Shift (2020), El Mirador (2022)
Sources
- Garden Ruin, Wikipedia
- Calexico: Garden Ruin, Discogs
- Calexico: Garden Ruin (master), Discogs
- Calexico: Garden Ruin, Pitchfork (2006-04-12)
- Calexico: Cruel (single), Discogs
- Calexico: Bisbee Blue (single), Discogs