González opens the album with the outstanding Futures, his narcoleptic vocal style and mesmeric guitar-picking capturing the mood of blissful ennui that recalls the 1970s folkie Brian Protheroe and his forgotten classic, Pinball. The Garden never reaches the same horizontal level again. But it has its moments, notably on Your Place, which, with its jazzy piano motif and horn melody, would not have sounded out of place on Groove Armada’s chillout classic, Vertigo (an album, it is worth recalling, which was also recorded in a tranquil rural setting).

González provides two other highlights in the form of Today and Crosses, the latter of which is essentially a grooved-up remix of the track that appears on his Veneer album, but with added handclaps and Philly strings. Fuller has her day in the sun with Throw it All Away and This Fine Social Scene, both of which feature dextrous guitar workouts. But the bottom line is that there are too many bog-standard geraniums in The Garden and not enough exotic plants for it to win any “best of show” awards.

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