The Garden (Merril Bainbridge album)

The Garden is the first album by Australian singer Merril Bainbridge, released in Australia on 31 July 1995 (see 1995 in music) by Gotham Records. The album has a main genre of alternative pop songs — some written by Bainbridge herself, Owen Bolwell, Stan Paulzen (both of Tlot Tlot) and Siew. The Garden debuted inside the top ten on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and is her highest selling album to date, being certified double platinum by ARIA. The album nominated Bainbridge for eight awards throughout the 1995 and the 1996 ARIA Awards including; "Best Pop Release", "Breakthrough Artist - Single", "Best New Talent", "Best Female Artist", "Single of the Year", "Breakthrough Artist - Album", "Highest Selling Single" and "Highest Selling Album".

The Garden
Studio album by Merril Bainbridge
Released	31 July 1995
Recorded	1994–1995
Studio	001 Studios, Carlton, Victoria, Australia
Genre	Pop
Length	46:36
Label	Gotham, Universal Music
Producer	George Siew Ooi, Owen Bolwell
Merril Bainbridge chronology
The Garden (1995) Between the Days (1998)
Alternative cover
The second cover of the album released in Japan.
Singles from The Garden
"Mouth" Released: November 1994 "Under the Water" Released: July 1995 "Power of One" Released: October 1995 "Sleeping Dogs" Released: February 1996

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

Commercial performance and singles

The Garden was commercially successful in Australia and had minor success in New Zealand and the United States. In mid-August 1995, it debuted at number five on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart.[2] The album dropped off the chart after five months spending a total of twenty-two weeks on the chart.[3] The Australian Recording Industry Association awarded the album a double platinum certification for shipping 140,000 copies and became the twenty-seventh highest selling album in Australia for 1995.[4][5] At the 1996 ARIA Awards, the album was nominated for "Breakthrough Artist - Album" and "Highest Selling Album", but lost to Tu-Plang by Regurgitator and Don't Ask by Tina Arena respectively.[6] In New Zealand, The Garden debuted at number thirty-four and spent two weeks on the chart.[7]

"Mouth", the first single, became Bainbridge's most-successful single release, peaking at number-one on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart and top five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.[8][9] Written by Bainbridge herself, it is a bubblegum pop song about relationship — "sometimes you feel you're in control and the next thing, you're insecure."[10] The single was released in October 1994[11] and failed to chart. When it was re-issued in 1995 it gained success, being certified platinum by ARIA and becoming the fourth highest selling single in Australia for 1995.[12] The song was nominated for "Best Pop Release", "Breakthrough Artist - Single" and "Single of the Year" at the 1995 ARIA Awards.[13] The second single "Under the Water" was written by Owen Bolwell and Stanley Paulzen in 1990. It became Bainbridge's second top ten hit in Australia.[14] The song was nominated for "Highest Selling Single" at the 1996 ARIA Awards, but lost to "Let's Groove" by CDB.[6] The third and fourth singles, "Power of One" and "Sleeping Dogs", had minor success on the chart peaking at number twenty-one and fifty-five respectively.[15]

"Sleeping Dogs" uses a coda that was previously used at the end of the track "Just Can't Get Enough" on Tlot Tlot's album The Live Set - Volume 1.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Merril Bainbridge unless otherwise specified.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Length
1.	"Garden in My Room"		4:32
2.	"Under the Water"	Bainbridge, Owen Bolwell, Stanley Paulzen	4:13
3.	"Miss You"		3:03
4.	"Mouth"		3:25
5.	"Julie"		3:56
6.	"Song for Neen"		2:40
7.	"Sleeping Dogs"	Bainbridge, Bee Gees	3:28
8.	"Reasons Why"		2:57
9.	"Spinning"	Bainbridge, Bolwell	4:09
10.	"Being Boring"	Chris Lowe, Neil Tennant	3:51
11.	"State of Mind"	Bainbridge, George Siew Ooi	5:01
12.	"Power of One"		4:08
13.	"Garden in My Room (reprise)"		1:13

In late 1996, the album was re-released in Australia with a bonus disc containing music videos for "Mouth", "Garden in My Room", "Sleeping Dogs", "Under the Water" and "Power of One", plus the following three remixes:

Mouth (US Remixes)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Aversion Mix"	4:01
2.	"Diversion Mix"	5:39
3.	"Conversion Mix"	7:15

Charts

Chart (1995) Peak position Australian ARIA Albums Chart[3] 5 Chart (1996) Peak position New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart[7] 34 U.S. Billboard 200[16] 101 U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers[16] 1

Year-end charts Chart (1995) Position Australian ARIA Albums Chart[5] 27

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalogue
Australia	31 July 1995	Gotham Records	CD, cassette	GOTH95032
Japan	21 February 1996	BMG Japan	CD	BVCP-914
New Zealand	24 March 1996	—	CD	—
United States	24 September 1996	Universal Records	CD	53019

Personnel

Merril Bainbridge — background vocals, vocal arrangement Owen Bolwell — electric guitar, keyboards, programming, producer, engineer Angus Burchall — percussion, drums Jason Catherine — vocal percussion (track 4) Gary Costello — double bass (track 3) Mark Domoney — acoustic guitar Tony Espie — mixing (tracks 1, 2, 5, 7, 9 and 11) Ross Fraser — mixing (tracks 4 and 12) Aaron Humphries — assistant engineer Chong Lim — piano (tracks 6 and 12)

Michael Losin — violin (tracks 8 and 11) Brian Marsh — engineer Roger McLachlan — bass Sam Melamed — electric guitar, keyboards, programming, producer, engineer, mixing Greg O'Connor — graphic design Steve O'Hara — strings (tracks 1 and 5) Adrienne Overall — photography Siew — keyboards, programming, producer. Mark Wallace — accordion (track 1) Chris Wilson — harmonica, vocals (track 2)

References

1. Henderson, Alex. "The Garden - Merril Bainbridge". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
2. "Album Top 50 - 13 August 1995". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
3. "The Garden - Australian chart run". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
4. "The Garden certification". ARIA. Retrieved 19 December 2006.
5. "ARIA Charts - End Of Year Charts - Top 50 Albums 1995". ARIA Charts. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
6. "1996: 10th Annual ARIA Awards". ARIA Awards. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
7. "The Garden - New Zealand chart run". charts.org.nz. Retrieved 9 August 2007.
8. "Mouth - Australian chart run". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
9. "Merril Bainbridge - Artist Singles Chart History". Allmusic. Retrieved 2 October 2006.
10. "Merril Bainbridge - Bob Gajarsky". westnet.com]. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
11. "New Release Summary – Product Available from: 24/10/94 (from The ARIA Report Issue No. 245)". Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA). Retrieved 4 August 2017.
12. "ARIA Charts - End Of Year Charts - Top 50 Singles 1995". ARIA Charts. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
13. "1995: 9th Annual ARIA Awards" Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. ARIA Awards. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
14. "Under the Water - Australian chart run". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
15. "Power of One - Australian chart run". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
16. "Merril Bainbridge - Artist Albums Chart History". Allmusic. Retrieved 2 October 2006.