Written in the desolate corners of England’s sweeping Yorkshire countryside, folk artist Natalie Wildgoose’s latest release, Come Into The Garden, is imbued with the same rawness and allure as these dramatic rural landscapes. The record is just seventeen minutes long but seems to slow down time with its rich, drawn-out lyricism and soft instrumentals firmly rooted in the beauty and freshness of the earth. Released in early March, on the promising cusp of spring, Wildgoose’s sophomore EP is more stripped-back than the lush soundscape established in her debut First Birdsongs—now, Come Into The Garden invites us into a wild garden brimming with intricate piano arrangements and hushed vocals that, like the natural world, bloom and fade in their own time.
The isolating environment in which Wildgoose wrote Come Into The Garden manifests sonically in the tracks’ acoustic instrumentation, laying her lilting vocals bare. Opening the project, “Introduction” is welcoming yet stark. Against lingering, melodic piano, lyrics like “Lie down on a flat rock and you’ll feel the warmth in your chest” nudge us to pause and tune in to our surroundings, a sentiment woven throughout the album. Later on, the haunting lullaby “Angel” showcases Wildgoose’s ability to glide seamlessly between high and low notes, leisurely and unhurried but never straying into tedium as intermittent piano creaks and the fuzzy warmth of an analog machine cradles her voice. “This whole business of what’s reality and what is love, but I don’t care anymore, things don’t have to be sure about anything at all,” she muses, content with the blurred lines between reality and fantasy, certainty and uncertainty.
Wildgoose continues to touch on love throughout the album, writing heartfelt statements carrying a lot of weight. “And if the moon did smile I’d think oh how she resembled you,” she sings in the unfeigned “Hand me a piece of your heart,” while in the title track, she invites her love to join her in the garden, to bask in its warmth, as she waits patiently by the gate. Her songs feel deliberately vulnerable, honed to evoke a tender sense of intimacy and establish a quiet but palpable connection with both lovers and listeners.
As its title elucidates, Come Into The Garden also encourages us to connect with the natural world. “Listen to the riverbed, cool your belly, calm your head,” Wildgoose croons in “Introduction,” her voice retaining a timeless wisdom akin to folk luminaries Molly Drake and Laura Marling; meanwhile, the contemplative “I Lingered” recalls how “the sun came in and sat between my belly and my thighs.” Her lyrics are straightforward but evocative, conveying particular poignancy as we ease back into the warmth of spring and seek to reconnect with the outdoors. Wildgoose’s close relationship to nature is evident in the album’s arrangements too—“Hand me a piece of your heart” is grounded by gently meandering piano which seems to mimic the steady flow of a stream while the layers of tender vocals on “Blackberries” rise and fall as intuitively as the undulations of a sprawling valley. In this way, Come Into The Garden feels organic, alive, as it breathes and sighs in its own time, drifting from dulcet harmonies and delicate piano to quiet moments.
Across the record, and consistent throughout her wider discography, Wildgoose offers a sincerity that feels gentle and defiant. This is especially valuable in today’s music industry amidst the swell of hollow, cookie-cutter pop production and the rise of soulless artificial intelligence models. As the world speeds up, Wildgoose is slowing down. Come Into The Garden is quietly triumphant in its authentic sound and earnest subject matter, leaving listeners feeling grounded and inspired to embrace the natural beauty around us. In the closing title track, her message is poignantly simple: “Come into the garden, come into the sun.”
