Down at the End of the Garden

Down at the End of the Garden is the debut studio album by New Zealand band Cloudboy, released in April 2001.

Production
Lead vocalist Demarnia Lloyd of the band Mink first worked on Cloudboy as a side project in 1995, releasing a seven-track extended play. Work began on Down at the End of the Garden in 1997, while Lloyd continued to be an active member of Mink. When Mink disbanded in 1999, Lloyd relocated from Dunedin to Wellington to finish recording the album.

The record was created by Craig Monk, Demarnia Lloyd of Mink and Johannes Contag of the band the Golden Awesome, and was recorded at home studios. The band felt free to experiment with new home studio technology, and attempted to create lush soundscapes to frame Lloyd's voice in compelling and unusual ways, while avoiding established genre sounds. The album is in part inspired by the serenity Lloyd felt among the hills above Wellington.

Release and promotion
The album was released in April 2001, through Arclife in the South Island and Loop in the North Island.

Cloudboy held three performances at the BATS Theatre in March and April 2001 to celebrate the release of the album. After the album saw increased sales and radio play during the bNet NZ Music Week, the band returned to Wellington to perform a one-off show at the Paramount Theatre on 20 May. This was followed by a European tour in September. The band planned to create a remix album based on the tracks of Down at the End of the Garden to gain entry into the world of dance music, but this project never eventuated.

On 22 April 2023, the album was re-released with a revised track listing for Record Store Day through Flying Nun Records. A remastered version of the music video for "(You're So) Pretty" was released a week earlier on 14 April.

Critical reception
Russell Baillie of The New Zealand Herald gave the album four stars out of five, describing Down at the End of the Garden as "an album of foggy atmospheres infused with beguiling melodies care of the breathy vocals of frontwoman Demarnia Lloyd", praising the album as "imaginative pop of just-so poise with a hint of darkness". Russell and Graham Reid from The New Zealand Herald rated it number 12 on their list of top 20 albums of the year.

Credits and personnel

 * Johannes Contag – arranger, mixing, recording
 * Demarnia Lloyd – arranger, recording, writing, vocals
 * Craig Monk – arranger, recording
 * Heath Te Au – recording