Secret Codes and Battleships
Encyclopedia
Secret Codes and Battleships is the fourth studio album from Australia
n singer-songwriter
Darren Hayes
. It was released 21 October 2011 on Mercury Records
in Australia, on EMI Records
in the United Kingdom on 24 October, and on his own label Powdered Sugar for the rest of the world on 25 October. It is his first release following a four-year gap after his previous album.
. During this process however, he realised he was making songs for himself. He then announced in early 2009 that he had begun making a new album. Hayes has described the record as revolving around relationships, as described in the first single "Talk Talk Talk".
According to Hayes, "Black Out the Sun" was written around 2008, and was originally written for Leona Lewis
.
, who he had not worked with since Spin, and Carl Falk
, a well-known Swedish synthpop producer. In early 2010 he announced he was returning to the studio despite having completed the album and was going to write more songs. Hayes documented the process through a series of "Making of" videos, in which snippets of several songs from the new album (namely "Perfect" and "Stupid Mistake") could be heard.
The album was mixed by Robert Orton, best known for his work with Lady Gaga
. Work was completed on the album in mid-2010. Hayes has said that it will be a pop album, and likened it to the first Savage Garden
record
.
Hayes announced that the album is to be released in 3 formats. A Regular and Deluxe edition which be available in all music stores and a Collectors Edition which will only be sold via his online webstore for £49.95 ($77.42/€59.94). The Collectors Edition is to include a 2CD set, a violet 12" vinyl, a full 12" 32-page booklet and 1 of 4 lithographs.
On 18 September 2011, a secret code campaign was announced. Four divided parts of a code were placed inside separate bottles and deposited in various places around the globe. The four people who found the code each received a Collector's Edition of the album and a personal phone call from Hayes himself. Also, the four pieces of the code could be put together to unlock a part of the album.
The first piece was located in Surry Hills, New South Wales
, Australia. The second was Mercatino Dell'usato at Porta Maggorie in Rome, Italy. The third was found in Mermaid Inn in New York City, The fourth and final code was discovered in the Hummingbird Bakery in Notting Hill, London, UK.
On 3 October 2011, the resulting code-broken "piece of the album" was revealed; a preview video containing short snippets of the full 12-track album.
Darren toured both Australia and the UK for this album with "The Secret Tour" during October and November 2011. These performances received very positive reviews, and his talents praised by the media. He has also said that he may continue touring the album in 2012.
praised the album, particularly for the instrumentality of the tracks and the falsetto
of Hayes. Copsey also claimed that the album could have easily been a Savage Garden
comeback album. Jordy Kasko of The Tune, however, considered the album to be "sterile", and had also claimed that "Black Out the Sun
" would have been a worldwide hit if it was performed by Leona Lewis
, whom Hayes originally wrote the song for. Natalie Shaw of BBC
gave a somewhat positive review, praising Hayes for managing "the balance between sharp observations and effortless melodies".
As of 29 October, the album was ranked #151 on the American
iTunes Store
's Top Albums list, and ranked #10 on Top Pop Albums list.
The album debuted #10 on the ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart (#8 on the Digital Album Chart) as well as #3 on the Australian Album Chart. The track "Bloodstained Heart" also made its debut on the ARIA Top 20 Australian Singles Chart at #11.
" was announced as the album's first single in May 2011. Hayes described the song as a song "that you can dance to in a club, but at the same time you can listen to it after a breakup". The music video for the track was released to YouTube
on 20 June 2011 and the single was released digitally on 24 June. Remix bundles were commissioned and released on 31 July.
"Bloodstained Heart
" was the second single in Australia, and was also used on an Australian X Factor promo. A music video was shot in early September 2011, and the song was released as a one-track download on iTunes
on 5 September. The video was released on 17 September. Hayes said on Graham Norton's radio show that the song will be released as the next (third) UK single in 2012.
"Black Out the Sun
" was confirmed in radio interviews to be the second international single, and was released on 2 October 2011. Hayes announced he was shooting the music video on 22 July, and it premiered on his YouTube channel on 22 August. So far it has not been released in Australia.
Standard edition
* additional production.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Darren Hayes
Darren Hayes
Darren Stanley Hayes is a UK-based Australian singer-songwriter. Hayes was the front man and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden, whose 1997 album Savage Garden peaked at No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in United Kingdom and No. 3 in United States...
. It was released 21 October 2011 on Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
in Australia, on EMI Records
EMI Records
EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide...
in the United Kingdom on 24 October, and on his own label Powdered Sugar for the rest of the world on 25 October. It is his first release following a four-year gap after his previous album.
Songwriting
Prior to making the album, Hayes had been given the task of writing songs for other people, such as Simon CowellSimon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
. During this process however, he realised he was making songs for himself. He then announced in early 2009 that he had begun making a new album. Hayes has described the record as revolving around relationships, as described in the first single "Talk Talk Talk".
According to Hayes, "Black Out the Sun" was written around 2008, and was originally written for Leona Lewis
Leona Lewis
Leona Louise Lewis is a British singer and songwriter. Lewis first came to prominence in 2006 when she won the third series of the British television series The X Factor....
.
Recording process
Hayes began recording the album in 2009. He worked with producers such as Walter AfanasieffWalter Afanasieff
Walter Afanasieff is a multiple Grammy-award-winning record producer and songwriter. He is best known for his long association with Mariah Carey, for whom he was producer and co-writer for several years, beginning in 1990...
, who he had not worked with since Spin, and Carl Falk
Carl Falk
Carl Falk is a Swedish composer, producer, song writer and musician.Falk began playing violin at the young age of five, moving on to playing drums and piano before settling on the guitar as his instrument of choice...
, a well-known Swedish synthpop producer. In early 2010 he announced he was returning to the studio despite having completed the album and was going to write more songs. Hayes documented the process through a series of "Making of" videos, in which snippets of several songs from the new album (namely "Perfect" and "Stupid Mistake") could be heard.
The album was mixed by Robert Orton, best known for his work with Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
. Work was completed on the album in mid-2010. Hayes has said that it will be a pop album, and likened it to the first Savage Garden
Savage Garden
Savage Garden were an Australian pop rock performance and songwriting duo. Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones formed the group in Brisbane, Queensland in 1994...
record
Savage Garden (album)
Savage Garden is the eponymous debut album from Australian pop duo Savage Garden. It was released on March 4, 1997. The album sold more than 18 million copies worldwide...
.
Release date
Originally, the album was set for a mid-2010 release. This was later changed to early 2011, with a single due late 2010. Eventually, the album was confirmed to be set for an October 2011 release.Hayes announced that the album is to be released in 3 formats. A Regular and Deluxe edition which be available in all music stores and a Collectors Edition which will only be sold via his online webstore for £49.95 ($77.42/€59.94). The Collectors Edition is to include a 2CD set, a violet 12" vinyl, a full 12" 32-page booklet and 1 of 4 lithographs.
Promotion
Beginning in mid-2011, a series of coded messages were presented on Hayes' website, along with a piece of artwork. Fans could submit their decoded messages, and each piece of artwork and code was made into a physical item which Hayes signed and sent to whoever decoded the text.On 18 September 2011, a secret code campaign was announced. Four divided parts of a code were placed inside separate bottles and deposited in various places around the globe. The four people who found the code each received a Collector's Edition of the album and a personal phone call from Hayes himself. Also, the four pieces of the code could be put together to unlock a part of the album.
The first piece was located in Surry Hills, New South Wales
Surry Hills, New South Wales
Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is located immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
, Australia. The second was Mercatino Dell'usato at Porta Maggorie in Rome, Italy. The third was found in Mermaid Inn in New York City, The fourth and final code was discovered in the Hummingbird Bakery in Notting Hill, London, UK.
On 3 October 2011, the resulting code-broken "piece of the album" was revealed; a preview video containing short snippets of the full 12-track album.
Darren toured both Australia and the UK for this album with "The Secret Tour" during October and November 2011. These performances received very positive reviews, and his talents praised by the media. He has also said that he may continue touring the album in 2012.
Reception
The album received positive to mixed reviews. Robert Copsey of Digital SpyDigital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
praised the album, particularly for the instrumentality of the tracks and the falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
of Hayes. Copsey also claimed that the album could have easily been a Savage Garden
Savage Garden
Savage Garden were an Australian pop rock performance and songwriting duo. Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones formed the group in Brisbane, Queensland in 1994...
comeback album. Jordy Kasko of The Tune, however, considered the album to be "sterile", and had also claimed that "Black Out the Sun
Black Out the Sun
"Black Out the Sun" is the second international single from singer-songwriter Darren Hayes' fourth studio album Secret Codes and Battleships. It was released on 2 October 2011 with the video premiering on Hayes' YouTube channel on 21 August. The song received its first airplay on BBC Radio 2 on 25...
" would have been a worldwide hit if it was performed by Leona Lewis
Leona Lewis
Leona Louise Lewis is a British singer and songwriter. Lewis first came to prominence in 2006 when she won the third series of the British television series The X Factor....
, whom Hayes originally wrote the song for. Natalie Shaw of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
gave a somewhat positive review, praising Hayes for managing "the balance between sharp observations and effortless melodies".
As of 29 October, the album was ranked #151 on the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
's Top Albums list, and ranked #10 on Top Pop Albums list.
The album debuted #10 on the ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart (#8 on the Digital Album Chart) as well as #3 on the Australian Album Chart. The track "Bloodstained Heart" also made its debut on the ARIA Top 20 Australian Singles Chart at #11.
Singles
"Talk Talk TalkTalk Talk Talk (song)
"Talk Talk Talk" is the lead single from singer Darren Hayes' upcoming fourth solo album Secret Codes and Battleships. It was released on the Mercury Records label in Australia and on Hayes' own Powdered Sugar label elsewhere. The song was released worldwide on iTunes on 24 June 2011.The...
" was announced as the album's first single in May 2011. Hayes described the song as a song "that you can dance to in a club, but at the same time you can listen to it after a breakup". The music video for the track was released to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
on 20 June 2011 and the single was released digitally on 24 June. Remix bundles were commissioned and released on 31 July.
"Bloodstained Heart
Bloodstained Heart
"Bloodstained Heart" is a song by singer Darren Hayes, from his fourth studio album Secret Codes and Battleships. It was released in 2011 as the second single from the album in Australia, and is due to be released as the third UK and international single in early 2012.The track was released as a...
" was the second single in Australia, and was also used on an Australian X Factor promo. A music video was shot in early September 2011, and the song was released as a one-track download on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
on 5 September. The video was released on 17 September. Hayes said on Graham Norton's radio show that the song will be released as the next (third) UK single in 2012.
"Black Out the Sun
Black Out the Sun
"Black Out the Sun" is the second international single from singer-songwriter Darren Hayes' fourth studio album Secret Codes and Battleships. It was released on 2 October 2011 with the video premiering on Hayes' YouTube channel on 21 August. The song received its first airplay on BBC Radio 2 on 25...
" was confirmed in radio interviews to be the second international single, and was released on 2 October 2011. Hayes announced he was shooting the music video on 22 July, and it premiered on his YouTube channel on 22 August. So far it has not been released in Australia.
Track listing
Hayes has mentioned the album will be released in three different versions. A standard edition with the 12 main tracks, a deluxe edition with 7 additional bonus tracks, and a collector's edition with 12 additional bonus tracks.Standard edition
* additional production.
Chart performance
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| ARIA Top 50 Albums ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
10 |
| ARIA Top 50 Digital Albums ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
8 |
| UK Album Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
29 |