Jobie Reviews Music 167: Savage Garden (album) by Savage Garden. Requested by ActuallyApollo.

Savage Garden is a 1997 pop album by Savage Garden. It is 11* tracks long, spanning 44 minutes and 35 seconds of music. It is also the very first album that the duo ever released, with 3 singles (“To the Moon & Back”, “I Want You”, and “Break Me, Shake Me”) coming out prior to its release. The duo deliver catchy pop ballads on this album, the instrumentation of which being very appropriate for a pop album released in 1997.

Elaborating further, the instrumentation on the album is a blend between a variety of different styles, ranging anywhere from disco induced tracks such as “Break Me, Shake Me” to the more soft rock oriented “I Want You”. The duo’s variation of instrumentation on the album allows for an interesting listening experience indeed, with some tracks injecting Savage Garden exclusive elements (the first track on the album starts off with sci fi beeping noises before turning into a soft rock song!) into their instrumentation.

As mentioned before, the duo deliver some very catchy pop ballads on the 11* track album, with serene love ballads such as “Truly Madly Deeply” having very well-executed choruses. Though sometimes this results in tracks being repetitive, it doesn’t affect the quality of the album all that much, thanks to Savage Garden’s vocal delivery and variable instrumentation.

The track “I Want You” is perhaps the most interesting track out of the 11* contained on the album. In comparison to the other 10 tracks on the album, it’s a lot more experimental in terms of composition, with the song twisting and turning in various ways throughout its nearly 4 minute runtime. For example, the track contains a section where Savage Garden sings in a choir style, with the instrumentation in the background being equally unusual. Quirks like these make the track truly stand out from the other 10, which is likely why it was later released as part of the duo’s “I Want You” EP.

My favorite tracks from the album are “To the Moon & Back”, “Truly Madly Deeply”, “Carry On Dancing”, and “Santa Monica”.

Overall, Savage Garden is a fairly enjoyable pop album from the duo. From catchy discoesque pop tracks to the strange soft rock style “I Want You”, the album offers up a wide variety of 1997 appropriate pop styles, allowing the overall listening experience to be quite an enjoyable one.

*International version reviewed.

Overall rating:

8.3/10

LINK TO ALBUM:

https://open.spotify.com/album/64peTvbTLBDeSBu0GsCRE4