Savage Garden Album: “Savage Garden”

In 1984, the UK pop group Wham! featured its two well-kempt members on the cover of "Make it Big," the album that spawned "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and a slew of other hits to guarantee interest in the duo's continuances for years to come. George Michael, unarguably more popular, stared away from the camera, while partner in suave Andrew Ridgeley looked straight at it. Just 13 years later, Savage Garden put out its eponymous debut disc, and nearly the same pose was postured by Australians Daniel Johns and Darren Hayes, the latter eyeing the universe while the former eyed any eye to grace the black and white cover. Hayes, of course, was Savage Garden's George Michael; he was the accented lead vocalist to be remembered by face and voice as the band's heartthrob even after its demise. Johns, on the other hand, was less memorable; he and Ridgeley seemed to be mere specialists along for the ride, writing flashy hooks and danceable beats as a fallback if their partners were to lose credibility. Credibility proved not an issue for Savage Garden, as their debut sold 11 million copies (trumping the 7 million of Wham!) and yielded 3 huge hits, the prominent one being "Truly Madly Deeply," which landed the ever-impossible #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. But beyond hogging bureau space in millions of teenage rooms and dropping filler material for thousands of radio stations, "Savage Garden" is easily the best pop album of the 1990s, perfectly mixing harmony, instrumentation, percussion, sensuality, and a surprisingly effortless sense of artiness.

That artiness, perhaps the make-it-or-break-it feature absent from teen diva albums and boy band albums alike, goes far beyond the retro-cool collage work done for the CD fold-out. It is defined by Savage Garden's versatility, stretching danceable backdrops through funk, paranoid pop, hip hop, synth pop, pillow-side ballads, disco, and even indie pop. This flexibility doesn't come unwarned, however, with Hayes promising on "Violet" that he's "gonna crash into your world/and that's no lie." This track, a cleverly-maneuvered disco-pop standout, mixes deep fuzz-funk with a raw, sexual slap bass line almost three years before Britney Spears used that same bass costumed as a schoolgirl to achieve sex appeal in her "...Hit Me One More Time."

Setting pop standards, like that precursor to Spears, is what much of this album becomes, as is the case with the lead single, "I Want You." Thank Hayes' nonsensical motor-rap (highlight: "Sweet like a chic a cherry cola") for the pop-group members strictly used for raps, like Richard "Abs" Breen of 5ive or, most recently, Lil' Kim in the remake collaboration of "Lady Marmalade." Aside from the rapping, Johns' deranged percussion is the track's centerpiece, sounding somewhat like Radiohead's "Idioteque" when at its most creative. Meanwhile, "Break Me Shake Me" actually teaches how to involve frustration in a dance piece. Taking a drama-club confessional approach to the typical hard-edged pop song, Hayes does little more than whisper over foreshadowing tambourine shakes to mount an approach to his thrash choruses, which seem to gain fury with each installment. That pure emotion, revealed in Hayes' lyrics ("You abused me in a way I've never known") and garnished by Johns' brilliant multi-instrumentalism, dictates the album, providing it with a collective focal point as to never allow the listener to lose interest.

The first half of the album is the most important emotion, that of love, most excellently examined in "Universe," which not only features soft rock keyboards but also some surprisingly witty lyrics, shown when Hayes describes his physical and mental relationship as consisting of "two minds, consensual." After that section, book-ended by "To the Moon & Back" and the aforementioned "Universe," Savage Garden becomes energetically sexual with "Carry on Dancing" and "Violet," the former allowing Hayes to equate "dancing" and "romancing" over a warped piano trance that finds the ability mesmerize in its striking percussion. "Break Me Shake Me" and "A Thousand Words" are bitingly vengeful, an emotional segment that ends in Hayes threatening to spit out a horde of deceptive words, the most powerful being "damnation." Finally, with "Promises" and "Santa Monica," Hayes and Johns recover from spite with wisdom, playing the role of the owl, the much-illustrated character throughout their in-case spread. "Promises" is the album's quiet standout, as string and bell accompaniment flutters around flutes and synth effects beneath Hayes' contemplative vocals. In retrospect, after a complete listen, Hayes and Johns seem to have perfected a full transition, which with staying power is able to etch itself into the pop listener's ears, heart, and mind. This album-long transition from love to sex to anger to wisdom seems the blueprint for human life, which makes "Savage Garden" life's inescapable soundtrack.

Savage Garden were the underappreciated Australian stepchildren of the late nineties pop revolution. While the Backstreet Boys and NSync were building an army of screaming teenage girl fans, SG were exploring different sounds and lyrics while still staying true to the catchy pop formula. Their debut album is almost a tribute to the 80's sound developed by pioneers like Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, and Human League. But with Darren Hayes' unusual but soothing vocal style and Daniel Jones' brilliant ear for melodies, SG turned out to be more than your average boy band.

This album features many gems, including:

1) To the Moon and Back - A clever song incorporating a spaced-out, futuristic feel. Guaranteed to get stuck in your head.

2) I Want You - The "chica-Cherry cola" song. It blew me away when I first heard it. I love how the lyrics are sung at a break-neck speed.

3) Truly, Madly, Deeply - The first American number one for the boys. It is a sweet, romantic song that became a mainstay at many proms, dances, and weddings that year.

4) Tears of Pearls - Lyrically, it's one of the best songs on the album. Key changes are at just the right moments. Practically flawless.

5) Universe - SG sauces things up a little bit with this sexy ballad. With racy words and a grinding melody, this song is perfect for "extra-curricular activities."

6) Carry on Dancing - This one is really a filler track. It's not as genius as some of the other tracks, but it's still nice and catchy.

7) Violet - This one sounds like it could have been written by Prince (and I'm not just alluding to a purple reference). It's very funky with a subtle sexual quality.

8) Break Me, Shake Me - This is a rougher, more desperate track. I'm not sure if it sticks out or stands out on the album, but it is a departure from the other tracks.

9) A Thousand Words - My favorite song from this effort. It reads like a beautiful, frustrated poem. Great harmonies and lyrics make it worthy of multiple listens.

10) Promises - This one is more downbeat than the previous tracks, more groovy. It's a good bouncy quality and a great chorus.

11) Santa Monica - It's kind of a loving tribute to the pier, ripe with references of inline skaters and coffee on the promenade. But the chorus doesn't seem to match up. It's a good song, but kind of weird.

So, if you love pop with substance, than you must take a trip to Savage Garden. These two handsome Aussies will soon win your heart, and this might become one of your favorite albums.

"Savage Garden," the debut CD from the band of the same name, is full of pulsating rhythms, melodic beats, and introspective lyrics.Their love ballads convey to the listener a sense of longing, of desire, whereas the ballads of other modern pop bands are bland, unoriginal, syrupy and ultimately poor. Unlike recent pop sensations N*Sync and the Backstreet Boys, Savage Garden group members write their own songs that don't all necessarily involve romance and are, unfortunately, atypical among "fads." Case in point: the Backstreet Boys' "I Want it that Way" reached its peak at number six in the top 10 singles charts, while Savage Garden's "The Animal Song" reached its peak out of the top ten. Sample the first verse lyrics of the Backstreet Boys' "Larger than Life" and Savage Garden's "A Thousand Words" for further comparison: "A Thousand Words"--"We stumble in a tangled web/Decaying friendships almost dead/And hide behind a mask of lies/We twist and turn and we avoid/All hope of salvage now devoid/I see the truth inside your eyes" "Larger than Life"--"I may run and hide/When you're screamin' my name, alright/But let me tell you now/There are prices to fame, alright/All of our time spent in flashes of light" True, the Backstreet Boys' producer and songwriter, Max Martin, is writing for a less sophisticated audience than Savage Garden's frontmen and songwriters, vocalist Darren Hayes and keyboardist Daniel Jones, but he should provide his band with less standard fare. All of the tracks on this album are gems, I can't say as much for those on the Backstreet Boys' "Millenium."

This CD intrigued me when I first heard it. It wasn't because it was so good (which it is), but because I couldn't figure out how it became so popular. I really liked it and NOTHING I like is popular.

In reference to the content, most of the songs are pretty good, but I have to say I like the Truly Madly Deeply song the least. The best by far, and one everyone seems to overlook, is "Tears of Pearls" with that perfect verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus format we all know and love. This is followed in quality by the overplayed but deservingly so "I Want You". This CD is full of catchy synth hooks combined with great melodies and a wonderful vocalist. Who does that sound like? ERASURE! Yes, my all time favorite, and almost never popular band. They are in the exact same category as Savage Garden and are better, but some fans of Savage Garden for some reason feel that they must turn to dreck like BSB, 98 Degrees and Ricky Martin to fufill their thirst for pop music. The media lies to you, telling you these over-commercial acts are popular before they sell anything, and basically make that popularity come true.

But fans of real music by real artists, don't despair! Savage Garden should open the door for other talented acts such as themselves to come to the forefront in the world of pop music. It hasn't happened yet, but there are tons of new acts just waiting to be discovered. Perhaps Savage Garden's continuing success and the release of the next Erasure album this summer will start pop music in the right direction again. Here's hoping!

i love this cd. i is differant than affirmation but is still beautiful. darren and daniel have such talent that it can't be discribed. they will always have a place in my heart. you should defininatly(spelling is wrong) buy this cd if only for your love for savage garden. if i could rate it on a scale of 1-10 i would give it a 15. it is by far one of the greatest cds that i have ever heard and owned (the other is affirmation of course ). buy it a.s.a.p.