Well – like the album insert says, I’ve had my tea as instructed and popped in disc 2 of Darren Hayes ‘This Delicate Thing We’ve Made’ and I’ve had plenty of time to let it marinate for a few weeks. Here is what I have to say about it…
Unlike my first review, which I felt was somewhat rushed in retrospect (sorry), this review will focus on the songs I really like on disc 2. This disc doesn’t work for me as easily as disc 1 does to be absolutely honest. A lot of the momentum and movement that is experienced on disc 1 is lost and replaced with start and stop moments in the way of ballads mixed with electro tracks. The songs themselves aren’t bad (infact they are bloody brilliant), but I think they are just mis-ordered to my personal liking really. And really, that’s not saying much considering that I am no mix master wizard by any stretch of the imagination. But, if I were going to create a double album like this, I would have put all the electro tracks on disc 1 and the slower tempo tracks on disc 2 – just to give it a bit more separation of genre. That is just my personal opinion. Now I am sure Darren has his reasons for doing it the way he did, but with 25 songs and the power of iTunes playlists, you can almost create your own album order which is great. But enough of my insignificant thoughts on that…here’s what I like about disc 2.
‘The Future Holds A Lions Heart’ is a thunderstorm of electricity. An almost angry track – it’s a great way to start disc 2. It’s a full on slap in the face and I get the impression that it’s message is saying to ‘look very hard at yourself you naive young thing’. There’s more to life than youth and beauty.
‘On The Verge Of Something Wonderful’ is one of my favourite tracks on the album and was the perfect choice for the first single. Whenever Darren played this live at Club Delicacy it was such a fun song to watch him perform. ‘Verge’ seems to be the right combination of electro, pop and rock stylings with a sprinkling of retro added on the top in the form of the music video. I am hoping that Darren also follows this same video art direction in his upcoming video to ‘Me, Myself and (I)’ which we should be seeing online sometime very soon.
‘Neverland’ is kinda fun. I imagine Darren is living out a sort of Peter Pan like musical fantasia in this track. I see him opening up little mysterious treasure chests of whimsy in this almost childlike track, leaping from lillypad to lillypad. Has he gone back in the time machine to ask himself all sorts of questions about what he what he would change about his life?
Well, let’s just say that ‘Me, Myself and (I) is our favourite song on disc 2. We are playing it over and over again. It’s on repeat. It’s our ringtone on our mobile phone. It’s bloody brilliant. The best part about this song is towards the end at 2 minutes, 56 seconds…you know which part I am talking about?! You know, the bip, bip, be-bip, bip part. It’s almost unbelievable to witness Shave playing this live on the keys – his fingers do actually move that fast! We wonder what sort of exercises Shave must do to perfect this type of finger movement. Darren’s vocals are outstanding on this track too. "When we met, it was like futureshock." Woo-hoo is right Darren.
‘I Just Want You To Love Me’…very sad song – it’s been awhile since Darren has poured his heart out like this and exposed his inner self the way he does in this beautiful song. We certainly didn’t hear a song like this on ‘Tension and the Spark’ now did we? The same thing has to be said about ‘Words’ as well. It’s just Darren and a piano that the man himself has described as ‘aural sex’ and you know – that pretty much sums it up.
‘Setting Sun’ is amazing. An dark, electro pumping muscle of a track that I adore. ‘Tuning of Violins’ is the perfect track to close the album with. It’s a very English track, uplifting, and we know that Darren has finally found his place in this world. He’s found his destiny and through a very long dark journey over two albums, Darren Hayes is a happy man and it’s quite evident.
Some b-side tracks that didn’t make it on the album like ‘Love Is In Everything’, ‘God Is In The Room’ and ‘Ocean’ are excellent tracks as well that you should try to get your hands on if you can. Even more songs to add to your delicate thing playlist.
So that’s it EQs. That’s what I think about this epic of a double album Darren Hayes has done. The wait was long but worth it. Like I said earlier – no words I say are enough to properly describe every emotion and ounce of work that Darren has put into this musical opus. We are certain that upon future listens of ‘delicate’ that we will discover even more little treasures of musical wonderment along the way – for this is what an epic double-album is all about isn’t it?