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Saturday, January 27, 2007


Sky - Piece Of Paradise (1999)


The very first album I ever bought was Savage Garden's debut release, and it remains my favorite pop album of all time. Any fan of that band should also own Piece Of Paradise. To me, it might as well be the lost Savage Garden album. It may have a few more r&b influences, but the lead singer (that would be James Renald, since the band had three different leads throughout its short career) shares the wispy, pop-influenced style of Darren Hayes.

Although the album tanked in America, in the band's home country of Canada, it was a huge success. It's a shame that, with the exception of Japan, it made little noise elsewhere. Perfect pop albums are few and far between, and it's safe to say that Piece Of Paradise qualifies. This is a record that will always remind me of the late nineties, but doesn't feel dated at all. These songs could be hits today.

Singles: Some Kinda Wonderful, Love Song, Push, All I Want

Strange: Opening with brilliant anthematic synthesizer and equally catchy verses. If you like the kind of stuff I usually post, you will LOVE this.

Shave: A spicy duet that's probably one of the more r&b influenced tracks here. If this would have been released as a single, it would have been absolutely insane. Definitely a highlight of the album.

Buy It! (for a penny!)

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sky was GREAT! They had a second album with a female singer, and had a minor hit in Canada ("Superhero")

5:33 PM  
Blogger Nick said...

Yeah, I've got that album as well but I don't like it quite as much.

5:50 PM  
Blogger KulPop said...

Nick, did you ever pick up Sky's third full cd 'Picture Perfect'? Karl Wolf was the new lead singer and I felt the cd was a return to form after a disappointing second cd. Tracks like Dedication, Indiana Jones and 15 Minutes Of Fame were super. Karl Wolf recently released a solo album so I'm not sure if we'll ever see a fourth Sky cd.

Cheers,

KulPop

7:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks a million for sharing some old Sky songs! I was in high school when they first debuted with Some Kinda Wonderful, and then Love Song took the country by storm and was (over)played on the radio. These songs bring back those teenage memories ...

Just a sidenote - in addition to the three singles that were noted, Sky also released a fourth single, called All I Want. It's a great ballad and remains one of my all time favourites.

Thanks again. I think it's time I picked up their old CDs.

4:33 PM  
Blogger Nick said...

kulpop, I didn't even know they released another album until I wrote up this feature! I'll have to seek it out.

And, mysterious anonymous person, thanks for the heads up on the single. I thought they released one of the ballads as a fourth single, but couldn't find any confirmation of that anywhere. I'll update the post.

4:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No problem, Nick. This is an amazing site you've got here. The stuff you put here has turned me onto a lot of new music I would never get to hear on today's Top 40 stations.

And to second KulPop's point, their Picture Perfect CD was actually pretty good although I've had trouble tracking it down.

All the best,

G

8:03 PM  
Blogger KulPop said...

A copy of Sky's third full cd 'Picture Perfect' is up on eBay, item # 140080436464

Cheers,

KulPop

2:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I currently have this cd in my car. I've been listening to it alot lately. I wish they would have came alive in the U.S. It's our loss for sure. Love this cd and definitely paln on getting Picture Perfect.

10:33 PM  

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