FORGOTTEN GARDEN – Bad Guy


Scottish based, Forgotten Garden have released their latest single, Bad Guy.


Bad Guy is a rather cutesie song about a far more serious subject matter. That in itself intrigued us here at Send Me Your Ears.
The Bad Guy in the song seems to be someone who preys on people who can’t see through him. An expert puppet-master, if you will. He thrives on fooling his victims into thinking that he’s just a charming all round top guy, but no. The Bad Guy is there to destroy anyone and anything who gets in his way.

The drums draw you in at the beginning and you’re instantly grabbed. This song has a good choice of keys and synth instruments that fit with the very breathy head voice of Ines, the lead vocalist.


It felt as though she was very up close and personal on the mic. You can hear her right at the front of the mix. I must admit, I did struggled to grasp all of the lyrics as for some reason, they just seemed a little lost. Perhaps a competing frequency in the synths?
The head voice of Ines is particularly gentle and welcoming. It feels as though her voice would be well placed in a ceilidh in Northern Scotland – perhaps it is, as she is based in Inverness!

The line “bad, bad, bad, bad guy” is sung particularly beautifully here.


There’s the occasional male backing vocal which rather dominates over Ines. Perhaps that was intentional?


A quick thought from our vocal coach here is that, although the head voice is superb, the subject matter really does lend itself to more power and passion than we’re hearing in this song. Its almost incongruous that she has such a beautiful voice but is singing a song about a guy who most people would be pretty angry about! Again – perhaps that was the intention but for me it just sits a little oddly.

I like the song. Its gentle, almost relaxing if you don’t know the subject matter. There are touches of Enya perhaps in the vocal style, and the band cite the Cure as an influence, I can see that. I’d like to hear more from this artist and wish them well in their pursuits.

We give this song 3 ears out of 5