Music / Savage Garden

I want to stand with you on a mountain
I want to bathe with you in the sea
I want to lay like this forever
Until the sky falls down on me

Savage Garden (1994 - 2001) were an Australian duo, consisting of Darren Hayes (the brunette) as vocalist and Daniel Jones (the blond) as instrumentalist, whose brand of soft-rock mixed with straightforward pop was a surprise international hit as the 1990s exited the Grunge/Gangsta Rap era and re-embraced bubblegum pop. Though they only released two studio albums (in an era where artists didn't shell out an Updated Re-release to tide fans over), they had many successful singles including "I Want You", "To the Moon and Back", "Truly Madly Deeply" and "I Knew I Loved You", and maintain a cult following to this day.

After splitting in 2001, Darren Hayes continued with a solo career to some success.

Discography:

• Savage Garden (1997)
• Affirmation (1999)
• Truly Madly Deeply: The Best of Savage Garden (2005)

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"Tropely, Madly, Deeply":

• Added Alliterative Appeal: The "chicka cherry cola" line in "I Want You".
• Ambiguously Gay: Darren Hayes, before he officially came out around 2005-ish.
• Anaphora: The Title Track from Affirmation is a series of (sometimes controversial) statements preceded by "I believe".
• Anti-Love Song: "Gunning Down Romance".
• Broken Bird: The girl described in "To The Moon And Back" fits this to a tee.
• Domestic Abuse: "Two Beds And A Coffee Machine" is about a woman and her child dealing with the aftermath of domestic abuse.
• Divergent Character Evolution: The song "She" started as a sparse piano song in 1994 (released years later on The Singles), had new Spanish-influenced music written for its 1995 demo (leaked) and the music of said 1995 demo was reworked for a totally new song "I'll Bet He Was Cool" (a B-side) in 1996. Whilst the 1994 and 1996 recordings stand alone, the 1995 shows their link.
• Grief Song: "You Can Still Be Free".
• In the Style of: From the first LP, "Violet" in the style of INXS and "Break Me Shake Me" is in the style of Michael Jackson (HIstory era).
  • From "Affirmation", "I Knew I Loved You" is deliberately in the style of a Backstreet Boys ballad - it was initially a jab at the record company's demand for a commercial hit...then ended up stereotyping the band.
• "I Want" Song: "The Animal Song" expresses the singer's desire to live a more natural, stress-free way of life
  'Cause I want to live like animals
  Careless and free like animals
• List Song: "Affirmation" is a list of things that the lead singer believes in.
• Little Bit Beastly: Both male and female versions appear in the "Crash and Burn" video, which include, but not limited to: Fireflies, Ostriches, and Spiders.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "Promises".
• Motor Mouth: "I Want You" is a prime example. The few clear lyrics, "Chick-a-cherry cola", are often mistaken for the title.
• Shout-Out: Savage Garden was named for a line in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles:
  The mind of each man is a savage garden.
• Overcrank: Often used in their videos, especially in "Truly Madly Deeply".
• Parental Neglect: Among the woes of the Broken Bird in "To The Moon And Back" is her parents' absence from her life.
  Momma never loved her much and daddy never keeps in touch
• Silly Love Songs: A whole lot of them. It was what they were known for in the eyes of the general public, even though they had recorded harder-edged pop-rock songs like "Break Me, Shake Me" or "Memories Are Designed to Fade". To a general audience, they were basically The '90s' answer to Air Supply. Not too surprising, given they worked with Charles Fisher who produced for that group.
  • It should be noted, that most of the silly love songs had Ambiguous Genders, which could be applied to just about any kind of relationship, Sans for a few songs, like "I Knew I Loved You".
    • The first album really only has Truly Madly Deeply and Santa Monica to fit this description, but Affirmation has a whole lot more, due to the band aiming for a radio hit. "I Knew I Loved You" was frequently mistaken for the Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC when it came out, such is its overt poppishness.
• Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Apart from the chorus, the only lyric most people know from "I Want You" is "chicka cherry cola".
• Special Guest: A young Kirsten Dunst plays the Love Interest in the "I Knew I Loved You" video.
• Stock Shout-Outs: The chord progression from "I Want You" has become a staple of Electronic Music's romantic side as one of the go-to riffs for upbeat and slightly nostalgic Silly Love Songs and their trance equivalents.
• Video Full of Film Clips: The video for "The Animal Song" is intercut with clips from the Juliette Lewis movie The Other Sister.
• You Are Not Alone/A Friend in Need: "Crash and Burn".
• Zeerust: The video of "I Want You".

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