The Garden

The Garden is the title of the second solo studio album by British artist John Foxx. The album was the follow up to his debut Metamatic released the previous year, although the style of The Garden was radically different with a shift away from the near-total electronic instrumentation of its predecessor with a return to conventional instruments and a more organic sound.

The album contains a track entitled Systems of Romance which had been the title of Foxx's last album with Ultravox, issued in 1978. The Garden does in fact have more in common musically with Systems of Romance than Metamatic.

Foxx said of the transformation in 1992:

"'I'd grown tired of being a frozen electrician and gone off on a walking tour of England. Then to Italy where I was thawed in a big way. After 1981 everyone and his dog went electro, so I became Max Ernst dressed as Lord Lost, exploring the overgrown and abandoned city of London. To a psychedelic ecclesiastical disco soundtrack.'"

Release
The release of the album was preceded by the single Europe After the Rain which enjoyed only modest success. The album peaked at no.24 in the UK album charts, two weeks after its release. Initail copies featured a free 16 pages 12x12" book entitled "Church", which in keeping with Foxx's artistic vein, included colour photographs, text, full credits as well as song lyrics.

original LP, MC (Virgin, V 2194)
(timings stated on release)

Side One Side Two
 * 1) Europe After the Rain (4.00)
 * 2) Systems of Romance (4.03)
 * 3) When I Was A Man And You Were A Woman (3.37)
 * 4) Dancing Like a Gun (4.12)
 * 5) Pater Noster (2.34)
 * 1) Night Suit (4.27)
 * 2) You Were There (3.52)
 * 3) Fusion/Fission (3.50)
 * 4) Walk Away (3.54)
 * 5) The Garden (7.14)

CD re-release (Virgin, CDV 2194)
11. Young Man
 * above tracks 1-10 plus bonus tracks

12. Dance With Me

13. A Woman On A Stairway

14. The Lifting Sky

15. Annexe

16. Wings And A Wind

CD remaster (Edsel, 2001)
11. A Long Time
 * original album tracks 1-10 plus bonus tracks

12. This Jungle

13. Swimmer 2

14. Swimmer 1

15. Young Man

2xCD reissue (Edsel 2008)

 * CD One - original album (ten tracks)


 * CD Two - bonus tracks
 * 1) Swimmer II 5:16
 * 2) This Jungle 4:44
 * 3) Miles Away 3:19
 * 4) A Long Time 3:51
 * 5) Swimmer I 3:34
 * 6) Fog 5:53
 * 7) Swimmer III 5:27
 * 8) Swimmer IV 3:58
 * 9) Dance With Me (Early Version) 3:52
 * 10) A Woman On A Stairway (Early Version) 5:02
 * 11) Fusion/Fission (Early Version) 3:53
 * 12) Miles Away (Alternative Version) 3:23