Darren Hayes - Homosexual

smellycat

smellycat

Even though I adore the singles, a little part of me was worried that after all this time he might have lost that spark. I was so wrong.

This album is everything I wanted it to be. Unashamedly queer, heartfelt and beautifully produced. I saw someone on Twitter compare it to if Tension and the Spark and Delicate Thing We’ve Made had a baby, which works perfectly.
 
La Toya

La Toya

Poison Blood really put me off this project but this actually a stunning body of work. Another album that hasn't necessarily benefitted from so many releases beforehand (I put Fossora in that same category dddd).

Very cohesive but pleased he doesn't stay in falsetto throughout. The lo-fi production is much more palatable as a full album. From first listen Hey Matt may be up there with his best ever. A bit John Grant in parts!
 
P

#PopETC

Let me begin this post by saying I have been a HUGE Darren Hayes fan since "I Want You". I loved everything he did as a part of Savage Garden, and went on to love a lot of what he did as a solo artist too. 'Spin' was a fantastic pop record, 'The Tension and the Spark' showed me a darker shade of Darren, 'This Delicate Thing We've Made' gave us so much, and 'Secret Codes and Battleships' was a welcome return to brilliantly produced mainstream pop that I felt should have brought Darren more success.

I really craved a comeback for Darren, whatever genre he chose to come back with, and when I heard it was happening, I was elated!

When 'Let's Try Being In Love' was released initially I thought it was practically perfect, especially combined with the visually aesthetic and very compelling video. On repeated listens it started to grate on me slightly, and with each single released subsequently, my expectations diminished for the album. Put it this way, I listened to the Charlie Puth record before I listened to this today.

In some ways, this record reminds me of the audio equivalent of 'And Just Like That'. It feels overly-woke, box-ticking and as if it's drowning in issues (to my ears). There's very little joy in it. Songs like "Feels Like It's Over" and "Music Video" I find almost impossible to get through on first listen. I understand this album is called 'Homosexual' and so I should expect the content to be centred around that concept, but I can't help but feel Darren has in recent years made his personality all about his sexuality. I suppose it's a case of letting it all out after years of suppression, but I have to admit I preferred the sonic outcome of suppression!

His voice to me is one of the finest in pop music, but the melodies and the constant higher pitch is exhausting to me. The production feels quite primitive, and I don't know if producing it entirely alone was a creative choice or a financial one, or a personal challenge, but for me it was the wrong one. Sometimes artists don't need to have all the control. I LOVE a cohesive record, but for a lot of this 1 hour and 25 minutes I was huffing and blowing and think "is this one nearly over?"

I'm disappointed, and exhausted, and it's not even 12pm. I will revisit it at some point, but it's not an album I'm excited to share with friends the way I would have been with his previous releases. I'm sure for him it was a labour of love, and I'm happy for him, but for me it was a labour to listen all the way through.
 
smellycat

smellycat

#PopETC said:
Let me begin this post by saying I have been a HUGE Darren Hayes fan since "I Want You". I loved everything he did as a part of Savage Garden, and went on to love a lot of what he did as a solo artist too. 'Spin' was a fantastic pop record, 'The Tension and the Spark' showed me a darker shade of Darren, 'This Delicate Thing We've Made' gave us so much, and 'Secret Codes and Battleships' was a welcome return to brilliantly produced mainstream pop that I felt should have brought Darren more success.

I really craved a comeback for Darren, whatever genre he chose to come back with, and when I heard it was happening, I was elated!

When 'Let's Try Being In Love' was released initially I thought it was practically perfect, especially combined with the visually aesthetic and very compelling video. On repeated listens it started to grate on me slightly, and with each single released subsequently, my expectations diminished for the album. Put it this way, I listened to the Charlie Puth record before I listened to this today.

In some ways, this record reminds me of the audio equivalent of 'And Just Like That'. It feels overly-woke, box-ticking and as if it's drowning in issues (to my ears). There's very little joy in it. Songs like "Feels Like It's Over" and "Music Video" I find almost impossible to get through on first listen. I understand this album is called 'Homosexual' and so I should expect the content to be centred around that concept, but I can't help but feel Darren has in recent years made his personality all about his sexuality. I suppose it's a case of letting it all out after years of suppression, but I have to admit I preferred the sonic outcome of suppression!

His voice to me is one of the finest in pop music, but the melodies and the constant higher pitch is exhausting to me. The production feels quite primitive, and I don't know if producing it entirely alone was a creative choice or a financial one, or a personal challenge, but for me it was the wrong one. Sometimes artists don't need to have all the control. I LOVE a cohesive record, but for a lot of this 1 hour and 25 minutes I was huffing and blowing and think "is this one nearly over?"

I'm disappointed, and exhausted, and it's not even 12pm. I will revisit it at some point, but it's not an album I'm excited to share with friends the way I would have been with his previous releases. I'm sure for him it was a labour of love, and I'm happy for him, but for me it was a labour to listen all the way through.
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This is giving me those “we preferred when you released straight music” comments that were all over his insta when he came back with the first single.
 
bonnieetclyde

bonnieetclyde

Only about half way through this and pleasantly surprised. I can't call myself a big fan of his music and the track lengths here did almost put me off but I listened anyway and got totally absorbed. I agree with @La Toya about 'Hey Matt' sounding like John Grant!

What is 'Poison Blood' about, exactly?
 
smellycat

smellycat

bonnieetclyde said:
Only about half way through this and pleasantly surprised. I can't call myself a big fan of his music and the track lengths here did almost put me off but I listened anyway and got totally absorbed. I agree with @La Toya about 'Hey Matt' sounding like John Grant!

What is 'Poison Blood' about, exactly?
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He’s said that Poison Blood is about his struggles with depression and how it runs in his family. I think it’s a gorgeous song.
 
P

#PopETC

smellycat said:
This is giving me those “we preferred when you released straight music” comments that were all over his insta when he came back with the first single.
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I mean, I don’t look at music as being “gay” or “straight”, but I guess in a way this is his gay concept album so, fine, but it does feel like the theme gets a bit tired. Perhaps it’s just me, but aside from the first single it doesn't sound up to his usual standard to my ears, and his standard has been so high, so to go from that to being anxious for it to be over, it was a bit of a shock. In saying that, I think sometimes artists can have such thing as too much control where there’s no one to rein them in a little and say “maybe this song doesn’t need to be 6 minutes long”, or “maybe this one isn’t quite past demo stage”.

I think if there had been someone else producing the outcome might have been quite different. It feels like the same artist who made ‘Delicate…’ but without the refinement.
 
actorandlyricist

actorandlyricist

I don't get the beef with this longer songs thing. It's actually great that an artist is actually being an artist and not worrying about shorter tracks to satisfy the streaming culture. Very taken back to the 90's. I mean take Michael Jackson for example. Incredible pieces of work with epic time staps. Definitely gives Darren more of a sense of identity in this modern music world.
 
P

#PopETC

actorandlyricist said:
I don't get the beef with this longer songs thing. It's actually great that an artist is actually being an artist and not worrying about shorter tracks to satisfy the streaming culture. Very taken back to the 90's. I mean take Michael Jackson for example. Incredible pieces of work with epic time staps. Definitely gives Darren more of a sense of identity in this modern music world.
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For me it’s not about the song length, it’s more about the fact that aside from Let’s Try Being In Love, the longer runtime doesn’t seem to enhance them, but again maybe this just isn’t landing with me for a multitude of reasons. I generally adore longer songs that have a bit of a coda or an outro and usually I’m a fan of the self-indulgent, but I felt like in this case it was just “enough already”. I’m gonna try again tomorrow.
 
craiggci

craiggci

If I read one more "the song lengths put me off" type of comment. What has happened to people's attention spans these days?

Also, the veiled homophobia popping up, which is the EXACT problem this album addresses. WOW.

I think this is a very strong set. It really is the light and dark of growing up in a world that does not accept you. I felt like some of the lyrics were entirely about me and my life experiences. Birth being the closer it wonderful, finally finding the light, stepping into it if you will, and coming into your own true self.

I admit on first listen some of the choices in production and vocal treatment were a little jarring, most notably on Music Video. But actually, having listened a few times, I understand the very intentional choice of it sounding the way it does and it's brilliant, actually quite clever.

This is straight into Darren's top 3 albums for me, absolutely fantastic.
 
bonnieetclyde

bonnieetclyde

I want to add that when I saw the song lengths and it did put me off initially, that isn't because I'm one of these people who can't listen to a song longer than 2 minutes and 40 seconds. I grew up in the 80's/90's and fully embrace longer song lengths. It was mostly because Darren isn't someone I particularly listen to much/often/at all and therefore already being unsure if I would like this, the longer songs did add to that initial hesitation. Plus there are some artists who drag songs out for the sake of it almost and you do end up halfway through a track wishing it had ended 3 minutes sooner.

Anyway, I've really enjoyed this album and haven't found it overly long at all. He's done a fantastic job.
 
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kaleidoscope

kaleidoscope

Ok, I've been giving this album a try all weekend because I love Darren since Savage Garden and I really aprecciate and love his solo albums, which all of them are full of gems, and are amazingly produced. I'ts been 11 years since the last one, so my expectations were high for this one, but unfortunately I just can't get into it. And let me tell you, I don't mind long songs at all, but there's not one single song in this album that I wanna keep. Some of the songs in my opinion are very badly produced. The fact that is completely self written and self produced is cool, it looks like he let himself go and experiment as much as he wanted, but his voice is so particular that i just can't help but thinking he could have used some extra help and guidance with some of his vocal production. The songs are so monotone in general.
So yeah, I don't think I will be returning to this album anytime soon, but Im glad he's back and hopefully the next one will be better.
 
S

stoicist

Definitely think he could've had somebody else help out with vocal production. There's some great moments here like the back half of Do You Remember?, and Hey Matt is a total bop reminding me of a more fleshed out version of Setting Sun. I just wish the rest of the album felt as polished as those moments, there's also a lot of pitchy falsetto moments that I can't get past. Either way as a longtime fan, it sounds like it's been a good catharsis for him so I'm glad he got to make this album on his own terms.
 
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londonrain

londonrain

Staff member
#PopETC said:
In some ways, this record reminds me of the audio equivalent of 'And Just Like That'. It feels overly-woke, box-ticking and as if it's drowning in issues (to my ears). There's very little joy in it. Songs like "Feels Like It's Over" and "Music Video" I find almost impossible to get through on first listen. I understand this album is called 'Homosexual' and so I should expect the content to be centred around that concept, but I can't help but feel Darren has in recent years made his personality all about his sexuality. I suppose it's a case of letting it all out after years of suppression, but I have to admit I preferred the sonic outcome of suppression!
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I genuinely don't understand how this album is either 'overly-woke' (I don't know what that means), 'box-ticking' or 'drowning in issues'. There's a fairly obvious thematic continuation of This Delicate Thing We've Made and it doesn't feel like he's ever written a song just for the sake of seeming like he cares about something (which presumably is what 'box-ticking' means).

As for there being little joy... Let's Try Being In Love is literally a joyful song, and I don't see how this album is any less joyful than, say, Secret Codes and Battleships, despite the fact that he's deliberately made this more introspective. He's literally said "My new album was born from a desire to rid myself of the grief I developed over the years I lost to shame growing up in a world where being gay was met with rejection and condemnation. I wanted to revisit my teenage years with the wisdom of a proud 50-year-old gay man and revisit my youthful memories and view them through this new peach-tinted lens of joy."

It's one thing to just not really be into the album, but these criticisms don't really stand up to scrutiny, and as for Darren making his personality about his sexuality... um, okay, and how is this not the case for the overwhelming majority of straight artists? Everyone from Elvis Presley to Megan Thee Stallion has put their sexuality front and centre in their music over the years.
 
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