Hey guys! How are all of you doing? I'm doing okay. It's been a scary few days with everything going on in the US but we keep going. Today I am back with another album review, which I haven't done since I talked about Planet Pop 2000 back in like April or May. But today I am going to be talking about an album that is near and dear to my heart as it's the first CD I ever got when I was a kid. So let's talk about Savage Garden from 1997.
Between 1995 and 2000 so many iconic 90s bands and solo artists came to prominence. The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Matchbox Twenty, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Aqua, the Spice Girls, 'N Sync, Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera, 98 Degrees, Wave, Alanis Morissette, and Shaggy all became popular during this period. However one band popped up in 1996 with their first single, "I Want You" but only had two studio albums and one Greatest Hits album before splitting up in 2001 so vocalist, Darren Hayes, could work on his solo career.
My experience with Savage Garden began when their third single, "Truly Madly Deeply" started playing on the radio here in Ottawa. They had released two other singles, "I Want You" and "To the Moon and Back", but I didn't actually hear "I Want You" on the radio until late 1999 or early 2000, when I was in grade 7 and I never heard "To the Moon and Back" on the radio at all. I only ever heard it on the album itself, the 2005 Greatest Hits album, Truly Madly Completely: The Best of Savage Garden, and as the final track on the 1999 compilation album, MuchDance 1999. So "Truly Madly Deeply" was my start with Savage Garden.
I got their 1997 debut album, Savage Garden, on CD for my 11th birthday in 1997. I loved it. Some songs I liked more than others, but I listened to it all the time. 23 years later, the CD still plays wonderfully despite the fact that I used to listen to it once a day, sometimes more than that. After all it was the first CD I ever got.
Before this I only ever got audio cassettes with child appropriate musicians like Sharon, Lois & Bram, Eric Nagler, Mr. Dressup, and the cast of Sesame Street. Of course I heard other musicians by listening to the radio, and of course my parents's vast collection of vinyl records and audiotapes. But Savage Garden was the first CD I ever got to go along with my first boom box that was a combination radio, CD player, and tape deck, much like the one I have now. I still listened to audiotapes because we didn't have cars that had CD players in them at the time, mp3 players didn't exist yet, and I still got a few albums on audiotape. Even well into the early 2000s.
My favourite songs on this album are "Truly Madly Deeply", "Universe" and "I Want You". The other songs on the album are great, but these three are my favourites. As I said before, "Truly Madly Deeply" is the first Savage Garden song I ever heard when it started playing on the radio in 1997. "Universe" is a sweet song that is amazing to listen to. The reason I like "I Want You" so much is because it's a great song to dance to. That's the reason I still like Savage Garden as much as I do. All of their songs are pretty great to dance to. I don't know how many times I found myself dancing to a Savage Garden song in my bedroom whether it was a pop song, a rock n roll style song, or a ballad that I could slowly sway to.
That's one of the reasons Savage Garden is still one of my favourite bands of all time. They have such a a variety in their songs. Savage Garden is more the upbeat album while their second album, Affirmation, is a slower album, though it still has a good variety of musical styles. I'll get into that when I talk about that album at a later time.
"Truly Madly Deeply" is my childhood. It was still playing on the radio into the mid 2000s, though it didn't play as often as it did in 1998 and 1999. It actually felt like I heard the song on the radio more after I got the album than before I got it. The summer of 1998 was especially the time where I heard it every day, sometimes twice a day. That was the first summer that I went to Teens First Summer Camp, the day camp version of the Teens First group I'd gone to in February of that year, and I swear that for that entire week I heard "Truly Madly Deeply" in the morning while one of my parents drove me to OCTC for the day, and again in the afternoon on the way home. But it was only for that week because I wasn't up quite as early before or after that, so if they did play the song in the morning, it was before I was awake and listening to the radio.
Savage Garden is still probably my favourite album of all time. There are plenty of other albums and bands that I love, but this one is probably my favourite. It's definitely in my Top 10. I might actually do a Top 10 Favourite Albums list at some point. Not sure when though. Anyways guys that's gonna be it for me for now. I'll be back shortly with my review of season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery. The season finale aired last night and I'd like to talk about the season for a bit. So I'll see you in a little bit. Later.
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