This post is dedicated to my college roommate, who also grew up with this CD. If this is your first time reading this feature (which it is, since this is the first review), here's a brief introduction to my process.
I don't remember my first trip to the record store. I remember other trips, poring over stacks of plastic-wrapped CDs in the glare of overhead lights, but nothing stands out as the first time. Savage Garden's self-titled first album was one of the first CDs I ever owned, but I know this because I owned about six CDs from ages 10 to 14, and half of those I "borrowed" from my dad. Savage Garden was a purchase all my own, though, based on listening to the radio rather than my dad's music collection.
A little backstory first: Savage Garden, the debut album of Australian pop duet Savage Garden (surprisingly enough), came out in 1997. I was a middle schooler with truly unfortunate bangs. Darren Hayes had yet to come out of the closet. It was a different time. Still, when I cued up the album 17 years later, I knew every word. I'll leave it to someone else to decide whether these tracks stand the test of time. The last days of my childhood are in this album, along with the first stumbling steps toward adulthood.
Savage Garden starts with "To the Moon and Back," which takes us into outer space. The song is about a girl who feels alienated from the world, her parents in particular, and is awaiting her misfit match. If love was red then she was colour blind wins for most striking lyric, but there are a few other strong contenders. "To the Moon and Back" is one of those sad catchy songs, wistful yet still something you can belt in the car. Not that I ever belted it in the car; I was too busy feeling misunderstood and lonely. When I listen to music, I often design music videos in my head. I can't remember the plot my sixth grade self dreamed up for this song, but it's one of the only "music videos" I put myself in. Got a ticket for a world where we all belong? Sign me up and get me the hell out of middle school.
"I Want You" has lyrics that rush by so fast they're nigh incomprehensible. It takes a real fan to shout out every word three drinks into 90's Night at a local bar, not that I would know anything about that. It's a fun song, one that covers a universal subject (lust) with ridiculous lyrics. This wannabe lover is into someone with a crystal mind and magenta feelings? Plus a chic-a-cherry cola, tragically, is not a traditional Australian drink or even a real drink of any kind. But it all makes sense in the song's rapid-fire delivery, which takes us out of cruel reality and into the arms (and the lips and the face) of the human cannonball.
There is no dignified way to relate my "Truly Madly Deeply" story. I was at my first middle school dance, an enthusiastic participant despite my lack of date or any game whatsoever. My friend took pity and found me a boy I'd never seen before to dance with me. This song came on... and I refused a dance. You see, I thought this was the most romantic song of all time, and I wanted my first slow dance ever (!!!) to be with my true love. Gentle readers, you can probably guess how my love life went for the rest of middle school and also the next 15 years. I'm sorry, mystery sixth grade boy. Our love might have been beautiful, but I spurned you. Anyway, the point of this story is that I don't care how treacly this song is. I will love it forever. I will play it at my wedding and waltz around with aforementioned college roommate. Is the song in a waltz time signature? Doesn't matter, we'll make it work.
I have fewer distinct memories of the rest of the album's songs, for those of you who are already bored but have yet to close your browser tab for some reason. "Tears of Pearls," "Carry On Dancing," and "Break Me Shake Me" occupy similar angsty sonic spaces. Intellectually, I know that tears of pearls is not much of a metaphor, especially when the song mixes it by comparing kisses to pearls as well. My middle school self is making a capital W with her fingers, a sick burn on all of academia and possibly Rolling Stone, which dismissed "Truly Madly Deeply" and "Kiss from a Rose" in the same article. Unforgivable! "Carry On Dancing" sounds awfully creepy for a song about a stolen tryst in the moonlight. What doom awaits behind the bushes? "Break Me Shake Me" is about as rock as Savage Garden gets, which befits a song about an abusive relationship. There's some dark stuff wrapped up in the pop packaging and early 90's styling.
The remaining tracks on the album range from okay to outright bad. "A Thousand Words" tries to match the pop angst of the album's better songs, but never quite gets there. "Universe" has an awful chorus and the distinction of scandalizing my middle school self. The song was about sex! "Violet" is a weird enough song that I like it despite its failings. According to Wikipedia, the label forced Savage Garden to put "Promises" on the U.S. release of Savage Garden. Say it with me: mistake. The album's last track is "Santa Monica." Sonically, it ain't that exciting, but the lyrics mention caped crusaders! The lyrics also mention Norman Mailer. My middle school self thought this was some kind of slang for the mailman. I was not hip to counterculture in any way.
Thus concludes the first of many trips down musical memory lane. I think that for every time I've made fun of a song, I've made fun of myself at least once. I mock (gently) because I love. The good songs on Savage Garden are still good, and the ones that aren't, well, I'll still let the album play all the way through as I do chores. My middle school self would do the same.
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