So put your good dress on

May 17, 2009 11:31 PM

We Are Smug is the side project of former Savage Garden frontman turned electropop showman Darren Hayes and collaborator and fellow electronic musician Robert Conley. Hayes and Conley had been working on this project secretly for about two years before releasing it online for free on Hayes's birthday. There are no current plans to tour or sell this album, aside from the free download, but there are already official music videos. (Warning: last link potentially triggering.)
posted by divabat (14 comments total)

The first 30-seconds of "Watching Me, Watching You" made me feel like I'd just opened up a keygen.
posted by ford and the prefects at 12:01 AM on May 18

Darren Hayes is my favorite singer ever. This wasn't really my thing but I was glad he had fun doing it and put it out there for free.
posted by Nattie at 12:17 AM on May 18

Oh. I thought you meant "second video may trigger seizures."

Warning: There's a ton of police brutality in that video.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:52 AM on May 18

I really like the arrangement and instrumentation, but the vocals and especially the lyrics are annoying and trite.
posted by Darned account name at 1:51 AM on May 18

Revisiting that NIN sound from the 90s seems like a strange choice for 2009. I really don't like this at all. Its just sounds very cheesy and dated (but in a 1990s way).
posted by mary8nne at 3:40 AM on May 18

I really cannot listen to all this, its just too awful.
posted by mary8nne at 3:41 AM on May 18

Wow. Just...horrible. It really took them two years to make this dreck? Methinks they should have kept it secret.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:08 AM on May 18

Maybe you guys haven't heard Savage Garden before, but my expectations for this were couched about exactly where they belonged.
posted by orville sash at 5:18 AM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

Sounds like Nattie and I are the only Darren Hayes fans around here. Alright then. *moves along*
posted by divabat at 6:14 AM on May 18

metafilter: We're a bunch of pretentious music snobs!

(wait...I don't think I'm doing this right.)
posted by orville sash at 6:50 AM on May 18

Ok, now I think I've got it:

Metafilter: We Are Smug
posted by orville sash at 6:55 AM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

Clever bit of synthpop but I ask you, where's the 2008 version of Erasure or The Petshop Boys?
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:55 AM on May 18

I quite like it. It's a bit silly and cheesy at points, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, it suits the whole style of the album.
posted by bjrn at 8:07 AM on May 18

Sounds like Nattie and I are the only Darren Hayes fans around here. Alright then. *moves along*

me three!
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:50 PM on May 19