''Affirmation'' is the second and final studio album by Australian pop duo

Savage Garden Savage Garden was an Australian pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes on vocals and Daniel Jones on instruments. Formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1993, the duo achieved international success from the mid-1990s to early 2000s with the No. ...

. The album was released on 9 November 1999 by Columbia Records. It won the 2000

ARIA Music Award The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austra ...

for Highest Selling Album. Alongside this it was nominated for Best Group and Best Pop Release but lost.

Background

The band recorded their second studio album after they recorded "The Animal Song" for the soundtrack to the film ''The Other Sister''. The majority of the album was written by Hayes in New York in September 1999 or slightly earlier that year. The exception was 'You Can Still Be Free', a much older song that dated back to at least 1995 - a demo recording appeared on their 1995 demo tape, then titled 'Free'. The track was written in tribute to a friend of the band who had committed suicide some years previously, and was revisited after said friends' family explained they loved the song and wanted to see it released on an album. Preceded by the second single "I Knew I Loved You", the album was released on 9 November 1999 to worldwide success. The album spawned a further five singles, one of which was exclusive to the Australian market ("Chained to You"), and one of which was exclusive to the British market ("The Best Thing"). Following the success of the ''Superstars and Cannonballs'' video album, the album was reissued in November 2000, containing a bonus live album, ''Declaration'', featuring recordings from the concert at the

Brisbane Entertainment Centre The Brisbane Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the Brisbane suburb of Boondall, Queensland, Australia. The centre is managed by ASM Global. The arena has an array of seating plans which facilitate the comfort of ...

on 21 May 2000. Including sales of the re-issue, the album has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide, being certified platinum in a number of countries. It became the band's last studio album after Daniel decided to leave in 2001. Similarly to ''Savage Garden'', the album's track listing varied internationally. The Australian version of the album features a bonus remix of "The Animal Song", a CD-ROM featuring video footage and bonus material, and the uncut version of "Gunning Down Romance". The International version removes the remix, CD-ROM and features a cut version of "Gunning Down Romance", due to a manufacturing error where six seconds of music are cut between 4:36 and 4:42, causing the music to stop abruptly.

Track listing

* All songs written by

Darren Hayes Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the frontman and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden until their disbandment. Their 1997 album ''Savage Garden'' peaked at number 1 in Australia, number 2 in ...

and Daniel Jones, and produced by Walter Afanasieff.

Credits

Savage Garden

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

* Daniel Jones – additional mimed guitars; keyboards, synthesizers, drum and rhythm programming

Additional personnel

*Walter Afanasieff – keyboards, synthesizers, drum and rhythm programming, acoustic

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

on track 9 *Greg Bieck – keyboards and programming * Michael Landau – electric guitars * Michael Thompson - electric guitars and

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

baritone guitar on track 6 *

Dean Parks Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Albums Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher ...

– acoustic guitars * Nathan East – bass *

Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to: Academics * Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager * Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, ...

– drums *Strings arranged and conducted by Jeremy Lubbock; contractor – Jules Chaikin

Production

*Arranged and produced by Savage Garden and Walter Afanasieff *Recorded and engineered by Jay Healy (vocals), Kent Matcke (basic tracking), David Frazer (guitars, strings on track 9), David Reitzas (guitars) and David Gleeson (drums, Fairlight, vocals and piano) *Assistant engineers – Brian Vibberts, Pete Krawiec, Tony Rambo, Dave Ashton, Ethan Schofer, Dave Ashton, Luis Quine, Mark Gregory, Ryan Hewitt *Mixed by Dave Way (tracks 1–6 and 8–12) and

Chris Lord-Alge Chris Lord-Alge is an American mix engineer. He is the brother of both Tom Lord-Alge and Jeff Lord-Alge, both of whom are also audio engineers. Chris and Tom are known for their abundant use of dynamic compression for molding mixes that play wel ...

(track 7) *Mastered by Vlado Meller

''Affirmation'' World Tour

The band and crew for the Affirmation World Tour were:

Band

*Karl Lewis – drums *Lee Novak – bass * Ben Carey – guitar * Jennifer Blakeman – keyboard *

Elisa Fiorillo Elisa Fiorillo (born February 28, 1969, Philadelphia) is an American singer, best known for appearing on the 1987 Jellybean song "Who Found Who", which reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart. Personal life Fiorillo was born into a musical f ...

– backing vocals *Angi Bekker – backing vocals

Crew

*Peter McFee – tour manager *Susie Steadman – assistant tour manager *Colin Skals – stage manager *Colin Ellis – front of house engineer *Bruce Ramus – lighting director *Scott Pike – monitor engineer *Lindsay McKay – guitar technician *Adrian Dessent – guitar technician *Simon Moran – drum technician *Sean "Motley" Hackett – lighting operator *Nina De Palma – wardrobe stylist

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{Authority control 1999 albums Savage Garden albums Albums produced by Walter Afanasieff ARIA Award-winning albums Columbia Records albums