Hayes on a solo Spin

Darren Hayes first made waves as part of the Australian-bred pop-rock duo Savage Garden. Together with Daniel Jones, he produced commercial love songs with intelligent lyrics and scintillating melodies like Truly, Madly, Deeply, I Want You and To the Moon and Back that resulted in sales of nearly 12 million copies of the group’s self-titled first album.

From there it was an easy leap from the Land Down Under to New York City for Savage Garden where bigger things were in store for Darren and Daniel who were treated like the hottest newcomers in town. Aside from the record deal with Sony there was the chance to work with Grammy-winning producer Walter Afanasieff who has done albums with Kenny G, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Michael Bolton and others.

If Savage Garden was a hit, the second album Affirmation soared even higher with tracks like I Don’t Know You Anymore, The Animal Song and the phenomenal I Knew I Loved You. Out of thousands of new songs released during 2001, ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers named I Knew I Loved You Song of the Year and added the cachet of awardwinning songwriters to Savage Garden.

Then after nearly ten years together, Savage Garden was no more. I have not heard anything about what Daniel Jones is doing but Darren Hayes has upped and released an album of his own. Titled Spin, this solo effort was given a massive promo blitz in the international market. Of course it capitalized greatly on Darren’s reputation as the voice which gave Savage Garden its distinctive sound and which revealed his songwriting prowess.

Spin is a classy effort that firmly establishes Hayes as a solo artist. More R&B then rock, a funky mood with touches of electronica prevails throughout. There are 13 cuts and you can dance to a lot of them. Fans who remember his early love songs will not be disappointed either because Darren has retained his trademark ballads. One of these is the moving Insatiable, which gets two different treatments in the album. The "Pablo Club Mix" of the song is offered as a bonus track. Insatiable is so full of emotions. It is the song that will assuage the grief of all the mourning Savage Garden followers.

The other songs in the album are Strange Relationship, Heart Attack, I Miss You, Creepin’ Up on You, Dirty, Crush, Good Enough, I Can’t Ever Get Enough ofYou, Like It or Not, What You Like and Spin. Darren co-wrote each one. And because former partner Daniel Jones has no participation at all in the album, he did them with his new collaborators, Greg Black, Rick Nowels, Robert Conley and co-producer Afanasieff.

One interesting innovation in the Spin CD is the coded weblink called ConnecteD. If you play the CD in your PC you can download three additional tracks from the official website. It looks like Darren had an excess of good new materials created for the album that he decided to make a few of them available at no extra cost for his fans. These are You Lift Me Up, When You Say You Love Me and Where You Want Me.

The Road to Graceland

Buy Elvis Presley’s Elvis 30 #1 Hits and get the chance to visit Graceland. BMG Records Pilipinas and Odyssey Records are offering Elvis fans the chance to experience the magnificent Graceland Estate in Memphis, Tennessee in the US of A with The Road to Graceland promo.

Every purchase of the album Elvis 30 #1 Hits entitles the buyer to one raffle entry. Drop these at Odyssey Records outlets in Metro Manila and Region IV. The raffle promo is going on and you have until Nov. 24 to drop your entries. One lucky winner will be sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to Graceland in January 2003 in time for the celebration of Elvis’ birthday.

This same promo is running on MYX, the music channel where one more winner will get the chance to also visit Graceland. Tune in to MYX for contest details.