Search - Darren Hayes :: This Delicate Thing We've Made (2 CDS)

Ex-Savage Garden singer Darren Hayes stretches his legs a bit on his third solo release, adding a bit of bombast to the radio-friendly boogie. With song titles like "How to Build a Time Machine" and "Waking the Monster" (about a mad professor building a creature with a "phonographic needle and a stereo heart"), it seems Hayes is reaching for more than a simple pop album, and the double-CD length belies the need to say more than you can squeeze into a three-minute radio single. The result is practically a dance-pop concept album, sprawling without quite being epic, occasionally straying into conversational, train-of-thought lyrics that vaguely recall an R. Kelly "Closet" episode. While the single, "On the Verge of Something Wonderful," delivers a catchy chorus over tightly packed production, This Delicate Thing We've Made lacks the kind of monster jams that elevate an album like Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds out of the dance-pop pack and into the stratosphere. Still, Darren Hayes delivers enough variety and soulfulness to keep the listener hanging on through 25 tracks to see what happens next--in the era of 10-second ringtones and downloadable singles, that's no small feat.--Ben Heege