Green Gardens make beautiful thoughtful music, music that makes you think and respond on an emotional level. ‘Things I Didn’t Do’ does that, it does that really wonderfully. But to me it does that in a number of ways. Bear with me here.
Firstly there’s that first listen. It sounds interesting with a strange kind of beauty. The music is this mix of halting and off-kilter, and compellingly melodic. The guitars play a sound that is almost awkward, while the vocals are tuneful with gorgeous harmonies. It’s intriguing, it makes you listen properly. It tells you that there’s something going on in the song. Second, there’s the realisation of what the music is telling you. I get anger and frustration, a feeling of dissatisfaction. And then there’s the coming together. The words and music tell the story. And then you get the depth of meaning.
Chris Aitchison (vocals, guitar) explains “‘’Things I Didn’t Do’ was written almost as chaotically as it ended up sounding. I’d just finished writing another track but felt like I had so much more to say. I felt furious on behalf of the characters from these songs, and let this lie underneath the process of putting this song together. It’s driven by the crunching guitars, with the rest of the song falling into place around them. It’s the closest to outward aggression that we get on the record.”
While this might not sound like a recipe for musical beauty, the thing is it is. The individual ingredients might sound as though they might clash, but they don’t; it’s the sweet and sour that makes it beautiful.
‘Things I Didn’t Do’ is bittersweet chaotic beauty. Go listen.
The info
Jacob Cracknell (vocals, bass) on the ‘Things I Didn’t Do’ official video:
“We worked closely with our friend Charlie Featherstone from CAP media on this video to represent the unimaginable horror and regrets taking place constantly in our minds. The music inside your head is bleeding and wilting, but you’ve got to try and keep it together. It’s a low budget 70’s aneurysm in a video, frantic and over before you realise. Will Johnson from SPELK studio worked on the amazing titles and lyric cards to achieve the Carrie-meets-KEXP feel.”
