Let's talk about Darren Hayes and his concept album "This Delicate Thing We've Made"

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darren_Hayes

I only know who he is from his recent badness. Sure I remember Cabbage Garden, and loved Moon and Back, but somewhat randomly I just got handed his DOUBLE ALBUM "This Delicate Thing We've Made" and I've been WTFing all the way through. There's some bland boy-band singing stuff in there that's made less impact, but I was immediately caught sideways by the first four tracks. Moody/bombastic electro-tinged pop, but then there's some mad titles and lyrics going on here.

Track 3, Waking The Monster starts "The Professor is building something extraordinary"
Track 4, How To Build A Time Machine starts "If I have understood correctly, velocity equals the distance travelled divided by time. I've read every word printed on Quantum Physics...

"Bombs Up In My Face" is a great title and the only really dancey type track. Other track titles: "The Future Holds A Lion's Heart" "Me, Myself And (I)"

Seriously, who ordered a 25 track epic from him? i'm going to listen to this some more

(OK, so it may not be a CONCEPT album, but srsly, WTF)

Comments

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

lordy "Me, Myself And (I)" is great too. perhaps i should have held fire on this post before i'd listened PROPERLY rather than on the rubbish speaker of my MacPro!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ha I reviewed it today. Dithered for ages over whether to give it two or three stars - there's some great stuff on the second CD but in retrospect I think I was too generous b/c the non-great stuff is pretty bad. He REALLY REALLY wants to be Kate Bush and it's all v embarrassing, he keeps striving for DEEP AND CLEVER AND MEANINGFUL but it all comes off like therapy speak.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I mean..those two tracks you quoted just make me cringe. There is really nothing clever about either of them (though a whole load of "I have been listening to 'Cloudbusting' and 'Experiment IV' recently")

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

oh i agree - pretentious is most def the word. and i must admit Kate Bush sprang to mind for me too.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

(the not exactly subliminal "Future holds a Lion's Heart" might have a lot to do with that tho)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Haha yes now you have pointed this out the dial has slid from "intriguing" to "embarassing" quite quickly.

Alan you must restore Dazza's honour by posting YSIs of the good ones.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

the point of my WTFness is that the embarassing ones ARE intriguing!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I was intrigued by the concept up til the point at which I heard it!

'My Myself And I' is the best song by miles (doesn't try to be K Bush, doesn't do that horrid quavery singing, can't hear the lyrics).

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

re YSI-ing.

a) what sites do ppl use these days? i use zshare mostly, but i've heard bad things
b) i've heard the whole thing through precisely 1.362 times now so i've not got a handle on what to YSI

having said that i'll perhaps try
Waking The Monster
Bombs Up In My Face
Me, Myself And (I)

separate locked thread??

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/reviews/story/0,,2154865,00.html

i see you mean reviewed today in teh graun! which surprises me as i though it came out in June!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It came out on 20 Aug, the PRs have been hammering that date into my head for months now!

[5500.livejournal.com]

i read the review, and i was intrigued cos yr words did seem to match yr stars. but this explains that i spose.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Even in the Savage Garden days he'd get some pretty out-of-the-ordinary lyrics in there. It was part of why I (mostly) liked the band - reminded me in a strange way of Duran Duran and their walk along the ace/cringeworthy lyrics tightrope. Still, a double album seems excessive - but then they almost always are.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

Edward O's cut-and-keep guide to "This Delicate Thing We've Made", i.e. which ones you actually listen to, and which ones you don't bother with.

KEEP
A Fear Of Falling Under (super-tense, taut bit of electro-pop paranoia)
How To Build A Time Machine (embarassing Bushisms but inventive enough)
Casey (basically, Dear Jessie for grown-ups. It sounds like it)
Step Into The Light (the best song of 2007 so far by miles)
Sing To Me (gloriously glurgy ballad)
A Conversation With God (much better than the name implies)
The Sun Is ALways Blinding Me (a bit wet, bad lyrics but a good tune)
On THe Verge OF SOmething Wonderful (damp squib as a single but not bad)
My Myself And I (excellent funky Prince-ish song, surefire second single)
Setting Sun (uber-compressed, dense squelch of fantasticness)
The Tuning Of Violins (grand, sweeping closing statement par excellence)
Neverland (sort of jaunty pizzicato-string thing)
Maybe (probably the best of the interchangeable ballads)

THROW AWAY AND DO NOT LISTEN
Bombs Up In My Face (fucking awful! HAS A RAP BIT)
The Great Big Disconnect (Darren wants to be John Lennon, or something.)
Waking The Monster (BAD Kate Bush pastiche)

Everythng else is kind of listenable but not altogether interesting. The B-side on "On The Verge..." is a lot better than the A-side but I've forgotten what it's called. Add that and the album's an easy four stars out of five. As it is, I would tend to say Lex's review is right on, though I think there's more good stuff on the first disc, though I may just be taking into account the sheer amazingness of "Step Into The Light" when I say that.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I listened to the songs jauntyalan posted and thought, WTF these are the *good* ones? will have to revisit.

i continue to be amazed at how Savage Garden were spot on, even when the lyrics got a bit pychobabble-y (anyone remember the Alan Parsons Project?), while Darren has seemed unable to put anything worthwhile together since then.

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

I love Darren and I think I will make a great normal-sized CD out of this when I get to know it better (have been a bit too busy so far, sadly) but I must say Bombs Up In My Face is the worst thing the guy's ever done! The only thing he's done that I've ever disliked, actually.