Truly Madly Completely (The Best Of Savage Garden) - Savage Garden

...Shake Me (Track 7)
Truly Madly Deeply (Track 8)


‘I Want You’ was the bands first single, released in 1996 in their homeland and a year later everywhere else. For the pure nostalgia value – if you took notice of the band from the very, very beginning – it’s a good place to start from. It’s one of the more adventurous tracks musically, almost acting as a dance track with the heavier drum beat that isn’t characteristic ...
...bit monotonous here, so it does in a way discredit his talents from the onset; Darren has one of the best male vocal ranges in the business today and I don’t think ‘I Want You’ was perhaps concerned with displaying them but by the same token it would have been better for the album to begin in a way that really dragged a listener into the album and introduced the group in a way that many fans would recognise.


This passionate ... more

When Savage Garden announced their split in 2001, many fans were undeniably distraught but found solace in the fact that lead singer, Darren Hayes, vowed to carry on with a solo career in the music business, in spite of being without band mate – the very talented musician, Daniel Jones. However, this solo career of Hayes has, for the most part, been lacklustre; although fans of SG have stuck behind him, through a fairly rubbish debut, homosexual marriages and race allegations, his work has never been recognised as mainstream or as commercially successful as it was as a part of the duo.

But it was kind of inevitable that a ‘best of’ Savage Garden collection would manifest after a couple of years apart and, surprise, surprise, the album was released just in time for Christmas! How considerate was that of the music industry moguls, bringing it out on the 7th November 2005, so fans worldwide could pre-order a copy for themselves and be reassured that they wouldn’t have a Savage Gardenless Christmas?

So, like the good little fans we are, my Brother and I bought it as an X-Mas prezzie for my Mum who will always be a Savage Garden fan, even if she hasn’t exactly been what you’d call enthralled with Darren’s career afterwards. This has nothing to do with the fact that she fancied that arse off him and he ruined her married lady fantasies, by the way...

WHAT MAKES THE ‘TRULY MADLY COMPLETELY’ COLLECTION DIFFERENT TO OTHER SG STUFF?
Whilst the one disk is primarily dedicated to the work of the band until their separation, it isn’t exclusively about the songs they released in the form of singles or music videos. There are five B-Sides included, which are all Savage Garden originals and two extra songs provided by Darren himself. That initially struck me as a bit odd; no matter what their personal circumstances were, couldn’t Darren and Daniel, who had sold literally millions of records together worldwide, at least attempt to create an original track for the benefit of this album and certainly for the fans?

Apparently not.

Being cynical and all that jazz, it lead me to the conclusion before I’d even stuck the disk in the CD player (perhaps literally, knowing me...) that the singles collection was a bit of a tap on the shoulder by Darren, reminding us that he is still around, writing music (be it either exceptionally good or unfortunately average) and – most importantly - hopelessly in love. Everybody say awww!

And with that, I played the album with Darren’s latest jingles in my head; he’d taken more of an electropop feel about this time, with the album ‘Tension and the Spark’ which I would consider to be his finest outing as a solo artist to date. Savage Garden will always be a little bit special to me because they were the first band I ever saw live and I decided to listen to this album as the nostalgia trip that I do believe it was intended to be.

Well apart from the latest single because, uh, you can’t be nostalgic about something if it is still around...can you?

THE ALBUM
It’s quite easy to split this album into four parts; there are songs from the bands self titled debut, to the follow up and undoubtedly huge album ‘Affirmation’, Darren’s own tracks that he recorded in celebration of his time in Savage Garden and of course the B-Sides. A big mistake was not to include the songs in chronological order; I always think that it’s a simple way – especially in what seems like a brief singles collection – to show how the band have progressed and how their overall sound evolved.

Ok so the band only did release two albums together but in spite of this, Savage Garden did develop quite a lot in many ways. This appears to be a little lost on whoever came up with the ordering of the track listing. There wasn’t a clear change in the bands sound; it was very subtle, but the love songs seemed more euphoric and they were a little bit more adventurous with the musical side of things, introducing different textures and sounds in a bid to keep a listener entertained and to create a different ambience between each track.

I’ve decided to review this album in chronological order; it may not be what the bourgeois of the music industry want me to do but who cares about them? Well, apart from Simon Cowell coz he’s hilarious but back to Savage Garden...

~ Savage Garden ~
I Want You (Track 1)
To The Moon And Back (Track 3)
Santa Monica (Track 5)
Break Me Shake Me (Track 7)
Truly Madly Deeply (Track 8)

‘I Want You’ was the bands first single, released in 1996 in their homeland and a year later everywhere else. For the pure nostalgia value – if you took notice of the band from the very, very beginning – it’s a good place to start from. It’s one of the more adventurous tracks musically, almost acting as a dance track with the heavier drum beat that isn’t characteristic on many of their songs. However, Darren’s vocals seem a bit monotonous here, so it does in a way discredit his talents from the onset; Darren has one of the best male vocal ranges in the business today and I don’t think ‘I Want You’ was perhaps concerned with displaying them but by the same token it would have been better for the album to begin in a way that really dragged a listener into the album and introduced the group in a way that many fans would recognise.

This passionate vocal effort is rediscovered though on ‘To The Moon And Back’ which is arguably the groups best track in terms of storytelling from the first album. Simply describing the forlorn relationship a girl has in connecting with the rest of the world, it does seem a bit like something Crowded House would write about but Savage Garden managed to spice things up a bit by adding some spaceship type sound effects that NASA would be proud to call their own. Darren’s brooding vocals are at their most moody on this track and for me this is one of the bands best songs because all of the different elements – music, lyrics and vocals – combine so well and so easily to depict such a story to the listener.

Managing to bags their first number one of many in Australia, part of the success that ‘To The Moon And Back’ must have had is the fact that it’s a very easy song to listen to; although the spaceship noises in the background could be seen as a little cheap, it’s a pop song at heart that doesn’t try to meddle too much with the basic formula of a good, mainstream hit but at the same time, is an enjoyable listen time after time. ‘Santa Monica’ follows on in a similar line of thinking; it’s pleasing on the ears and not overly complicated. However, it doesn’t fit in well with the rest of the album as it was never released as a single, seemingly replacing the slightly mundane ‘Tears Of Pearls’ on this collection.

‘Santa Monica’ is awfully out of place as the fifth track here; it’s a bit slovenly in its presentation and isn’t as inspiring as other tracks appear to be. It was well suited as the debut album’s closing track but here, you would have expected something a little more uplifting during the middle of the album, especially as it follows on from one of the bands notorious love songs, ‘Hold Me’. The vocals on ‘Santa Monica’ remind me a bit like N Sync or the Backstreet Boys; very whiney – too much so – and it detracts away greatly from the lyrics and makes it sound a bit manufactured when it could have been seen as a very original song.

‘Break Me Shake Me’ is perhaps my favourite early Savage Garden song. ‘Break Me Shake Me’ boasts a really intense bass line that helps flaunt the idea of mental abuse within a relationship. It’s perhaps the most intense that the band ever got- well at least within a musical context – and a huge advantage is that the vocals by Darren here are sublime; powerful but quiet and timid when need be, to the point where it sounds like he is crying and cowering away from the destruction of such a mentally draining relationship. I love the way that the darkness of the bass contrasts so greatly to the sharpness of the finger clicking and - although a simple touch - makes the sound into something even angstier and angrier which I love!

However, following on from such a vent, is an obscenely gentle track that I personally think is an overly emphasised love song; everyone knows the lyrics to ‘Truly Madly Deeply’, either through the original or that God-awful dance remix. If I was Darren, I would regret writing this so much; it’s been contorted to fit so many fan videos on Youtube (wonder if you can still watch the Savage Garden music video on that site?) and is always on the TV’s ‘100 Greatest Love Songs’. It probably has a right to be; it’s very slushy and very picturesque but it just doesn’t appeal to me. Cynic! I think Darren has written far better love songs than this, including the single created especially for the purpose of promoting this album. ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ is undeniably one of the most romantic songs of all time which I suppose is a big achievement in itself but I think that I’ve just heard it at dodgy school dances too many times for me to like this one an awful lot now.

~ Affirmation ~
I Knew I Loved You (Track 2)
Hold Me (Track 4)
Crash And Burn (Track 6)
The Animal Song (Track 9)
Affirmation (Track 10)

Moving onto ‘Affirmation’, there perhaps is a bit of a change in terms of the bands music; you’ll notice that a few different subjects – other than everlasting love – pop up in there which makes for a nice change. As an album, ‘Affirmation’ was a very strong follow up; released in 1999, a massive worldwide tour followed and I think I’m right in saying that this is the album that made the band so well loved by many. Although there were love songs aplenty – like first track from ‘Affirmation’ to feature on this collection – the band also sought to discuss their own personal beliefs of life away from the notion of soulmateship which is a delightful twist after an album of so many ballads.

Somehow managing to gain the number one spot in America, ‘I Knew I Loved You’ is a bit average; it drags on for a bit too long and sounds theoretically very similar to the rest of the bands ballads. I guess the promotional video didn’t help too much either – it was a bit corny and overproduced too. Does this deserve a place on the ‘best of’ collection of the band? It can be argued either way. It was obviously a significant single for them in America but I don’t think it’s one of the best tracks from the album ‘Affirmation’. Not by a long shot. Darren’s vocals can normally save a track but on ‘I Knew I Loved You’ they were just too gentle and in many ways it seems as if the group were attempting to recreate the vision that they had for ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ just on a different album.

‘I Knew I Loved You’ is also dangerously similar to ‘Hold Me’, in terms of the way it is sung and how the music is presented with slightly lighter and deeper moments. The lyrics are more emotional on ‘Hold Me’ as it’s about the unstoppable demise of a relationship rather than the celebration of such a beautiful thing. However, ‘Hold Me’ has been made to fit the mould a bit better and stands alone as a much more credible song writing effort from Darren than the former and the vocal performance is pretty much flawless; Darren always manages to grasp the emotions of such a song and when his voice pleads for the listener to hold him, you just wish you could be able to oblige him in such an activity.

‘Crash And Burn’ starts off in a promising way, as if it’s going to creep into the darker pits of song writing like ‘Break Me Shake Me’ did. But it gets a bit too pop-tastic at the middle eight and disparages itself a little although the overall message of hope within complete gloom does sparkle through and in itself is an enjoyable track; really it’s not a dark and macabre song but rather a recognition of being able to release yourself from such dire situations if you excel yourself. ‘Crash And Burn’ does sound better and more sincere in a live environment and in many ways I think the album version is a little too ‘perfect’; the bridge and chorus have nice breaks to them but the song would have sounded so much more convincing if it was a little more jagged and edgier.

The final two tracks from the ‘Affirmation’ section were perhaps a mild hint at philosophical debating. Or perhaps not. ‘The Animal Song’ questions whether animals or children are more human, a subject that has often kept me awake at night I can assure you. I’m tempted to say that animals just beat the other...sorry kiddie winkles! Although originally written for the film ‘The Other Sister’, ‘The Animal Song’ has a right to be on the collection as it’s one of the only Savage Garden numbers not to get too bogged down in matters of the heart! It’s upbeat and ecstatic which is always a joy to listen to – and voice a ‘Tarzan and Jayne’ mating call as soon as the pounding drum beats start!

‘Affirmation’ is possibly the pinnacle of such great philosophical debating with every sentence starting with the line ‘I believe’. It discusses important issues of self esteem, and whether you can find that in a magazine, whether you are born with your sexual identity and – possibly the most important and the one I’m constantly wondering – why does junk food taste so good: is it because it’s bad for you? Most bands wouldn’t have gotten away with it, but ‘Affirmation’ is the gift of eternity in terms of the bands longevity and it should have sounded corny and self obsessive but it’s neither. ‘Affirmation’ is one of the most poignant reasons to buy this album and exemplifies everything they seek to explore in their song writing.

~ By Darren Hayes ~
So Beautiful (Track 11)
California (Track 12)

As I mentioned, for this release, Darren wrote two more tracks, with the first of them, ‘So Beautiful’ being released on Hallows eve, 2005 here in the UK. Written about his boyfriend Richard Cullen, it is probably the greatest love song to be written away from anything the Beatles ever did, in my humble opinion. When some of the other ballads on here go off into their own, over bearing tangent, ‘So Beautiful’ remains true to its name. Gorgeously written and sung, yet simplistic and eloquent, if this was the sole reason to buy the album, it would be good enough for me! It’s emotional without trying to out do itself on the ‘beauty’ scale and just makes for wonderful, honest listening and I think a big part of that is because of Darren’s beyond impeccable vocal performance; he sings in a breathy but compassionate way and although it does seem as if he has written this song as an ode to fair Richard, it doesn’t come across in that way at all; everyone can relate to the lyrics, apart from perhaps the whole notion of escaping fans...but I can totally see where he is coming from in that respect to! Yay for sarcasm!

‘California’ was the perfect combination of the old Savage Garden and Darren’s recent work; starting out acoustically, it soon merges into a bit of a techno song, with many of its lyrics being a flashback to many moments on the album ‘Affirmation’, particularly ‘The Lover After Me’. The break down in the middle enhances the more soulful side of Darren’s voice and it works well in conjunction with ‘Truly Madly Completely’s single release but it does take a good couple of listens for you to really enjoy listening to ‘California’. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a good track, but not the best on offer here.

~ The B Sides ~
I Don’t Care
I’ll Bet He Was Cool
Love Can Move You
Fire Inside The Man
This Side Of Me

Tracks 13 to 17 are songs that many fans will be unfamiliar with. These numbers are a collection of material that did not make it onto either of the bands albums and it only takes one listen for you to see why really. ‘I Don’t Care’ really is the personification of a B Side; very satisfactory and on constantly one tedious level. It’s melodic and mellow but also a bit uninspired and nothing about it really shows Savage Garden to be as good as they indeed were on some of their albums and it also makes Darren sound a bit like a Westlife reject! That’s possibly the worst insult in the world!

‘I Bet He Was Cool’ starts hideously; it reminds me of a video game for the Mega Drive. Like he tried so hard to do on his debut solo album, Darren attempts to sound like a Michael Jackson impersonator and is a waste of some fairly witty, thought provoking lyrics, concerning everything from Jesus to youth. But the vocals are just appalling and – if I’m being painfully blunt – Darren sounds almost like a reject from the X Factor! Oh dear...I seem to have a bit of a thing against B-Sides at the moment, huh?

Moving away from ‘Truly Madly Deeply’s’ B Side, ‘Love Can Move You’ nearly made me move to switch the album off! That was a bit of an exaggeration but it was a bit like the B Side to the previous track; it tried to come up trumps and discuss some racier subjects but it just didn’t work. It does make me wonder whether it was a deliberate act by the band not to talk about things like Religion on their albums because it does pop up later on in Darren’s solo work quite regularly. Must be the art of sticking to commercialism...

I cringed at the Gospel band like ‘Fire Inside The Man’. Darren must have either had a really bad cold or was being overly enthusiastic because I never remember his vocals being that nasal before! A bit rubbish overall and not that enjoyable to listen to as it just stayed on the one, tedious level and sound desperately insipid. ‘This Side Of Me’ – although slightly clichéd – has a sweet 80’s vibe to it but suffers – like the other B-Sides – with a bout of repetitiveness.

None of the B-Sides could possibly be described as the ‘best of’ Savage Garden; they sound a bit like mediocre demos instead which does make you wonder whether Darren – or in fact the very uninvolved Daniel – knew how bland they were. To me, they were included just as a way for them to say it was simply another case of supposedly ‘digitally re-mastering’ on the earlier tracks and the B-Sides were included in this collection to make it seem a little more unique, like you’re getting a lot of extra, secret Savage Garden stuff for your money. Not likely, in my opinion...

ARTWORK
The ‘Truly Madly Completely’ collection was a bit random with its artwork and – if you purchase it from a website, you aren’t always guaranteed a specific colour of the artwork. We ordered ours me thinks from Play.com and they gave us the prettiest colour – teal! The others are yellow and pink which I’m glad we didn’t get or I would be forced to ship it back to the tinternet; this would have been BEFORE I’d bothered listening to the B-Sides, too!

Anyway, on the sleeve of the teal copies, you get a very pop arty kind of vibe from it; none of the images of the band are in their natural state and have all been manipulated to a certain degree with computers. It creates a very modern yet 90’s atmosphere, which is when the band were arguably at their peak. It is kind of like looking back on an old photo album, which actually makes it seem a little sad because you do remember that there will never be another original Savage Garden album; Darren ruled anything like that out in an interview not so long ago. I think the melancholy at the notion of there never being another SG album was meant to be dispelled by the bright colours but alas if thee are colour blind, you wouldn’t care anyway...

But the CD design is soooo cool with its mixture of teal and pink stars! Well it made me pretty excitable, one way or another...

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
Ok so I have a pretty bad memory and can’t remember exactly what we paid for this CD when it first came out in 2005. However, three and a half years later, you can expect to get it at a fairly good price and from the following internet outlets:

Amazon.co.uk: £4.98 (eligible for free Super Saver delivery)
Play.com: £4.99 (free delivery)
HMV.co.uk: £6.99 (free delivery)
CDwow.com: £14.49 (ok perhaps you shouldn’t buy it from there...)

OVERALL – WHY YOU SHOULD PERHAPS BUY THE ‘BEST OF’ SAVAGE GARDEN COLLECTION?
Singles collections are one of those funny things that are for the extremely casual fans who have heard a couple of songs, liked what they’ve heard, but haven’t bothered to actively go out and seek any of the groups other music. Of course, the masters behind the Savage Garden collection tried to catch us all out by including rarities such as B-Sides onto here and catch us out they did.

It’s one of those things where you have to really consider how big a fan you are of the said artist before you go out and purchase something claiming to be a collection. As we own both Savage Garden albums, in many ways this was money wasted; if we’d known how bad the B-Sides were, we would have told Play to go and sell it to some other sucker with a fascination with all things teal. Or, better than that, just not have bothered at all. I would have gone out and purchased ‘So Beautiful’ *swoons* as a separate single and we shall have all been happy.

Alas that didn’t happen and I don’t think I’ve ever been guilty of swooning whilst purchasing a CD. That usually comes later on when realising just how good or bad an album is. Back to the Savage Garden collection and I think the thing I liked the most about the CD was just how shamelessly nostalgic it was for me personally. As I mentioned earlier, these were the dudes that gave me my first taste of the power of live, uh, pop music and for that I shall be forever grateful towards them. Nostalgia of course isn’t always a good thing – especially not with the majority of 90s mainstream music (The Spice Girls or Steps, anyone?) but Savage Garden are very much the exception to the rule and this CD largely goes out of its way to make this point known.

The biggest drawback to this collection is without a doubt the dodgy B-Sides; I cannot honestly say that I liked any one of them. Sure I may have liked some of their slightly ‘risky’ subject matters but they just weren’t put across in that much of a coherent and interesting way. I can’t honestly remember what any of them sound like; perhaps it was my brain trying desperately to erase all of the bad music I’ve heard over the years (that’s gonna take a while...hope the memory doesn’t mind working overtime for the next few months!) but in any case it’s not a good sign and if these tracks were good enough to stand toe to toe with some of the groups biggest hits on this album then surely they should be slightly more memorable than all of that, right?

It’s a bit of a case of if you’ve already got ‘Savage Garden’ and ‘Affirmation’ but want ‘So Beautiful’, go out and buy it as a single. The B-Sides on here, which really should be the only way to sell the album if you are already a fan with both albums stashed away in your CD collection, are so dreary that I feel bad for even wasting your time mentioning them. They do in many ways ruin the idea of remembering Savage Garden in a positive light due to their poor and lacking quality which is a great shame.

For the singles, I love this album. For everything else? It’s not a patch on what it could have been...

QUICK STATS:
Length: 78 minutes (approx)
Year: 2005
Number of tracks: 17
Label: Columbia
Visit: http://www.legacyrecordings.com/Savage-Garden.aspx 

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