Naked Garden opens with the lazy, winding "Entirely Different Stars," wherein the narrator imagines drifting off to other planets to get a different perspective on the world. Fittingly enough, that idea extends to
Naked Garden itself, with the album shedding light upon its predecessor,
Turn Off the News, Build a Garden. This 2020 collection was recorded at the same sessions as
Turn Off the News and, indeed, nearly half of the album is devoted to alternate takes of songs from that 2019 LP. Some of these are extended, one is an acoustic variation, but they all have one thing in common: they're looser and shaggier than the cuts on
Turn Off the News. That same sensibility extends to the unheard tunes gathered. Even a song as soft and sweet as "Focus on the Music" -- one of many attempts to cook up a bit of a slow Southern soul groove -- feels a bit unkempt, with its loose ends proudly paraded in public, a suspicion bolstered by the studio chatter and amiably shambling performances.
Naked Garden winds up being the inverse of
Turn Off the News, Build a Garden. Where that album was designed to showcase the
Promise of the Real as a muscular outfit capable of pleasing boundless festival crowds,
Naked Garden is relaxed and intimate, the work of a group digging their own scene, but it's a bit more ingratiating because of that. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine