Conscience
... copies internationally--but in cold commercial terms, especially when stacked against the 27 million albums he shifted with Savage Garden, it didn’t match expectations. It was a tough time for Hayes, but it was also a career-defining moment. "All the smoke in the world was blown up my arse," he recalls. "I was told that I would be the next coming of Christ. Only that person became Justin Timberlake and I was this person just sort of straddling two camps...I was trying to make a kind of electronic record, but I was really safe about it and I made a pop record. I was completely blanded out in every possible sense, including my styling. I came across like a blond version of a Stepford Wife." "I was responsible for that," he adds. "I was so caught up in the momentum of my career and so terrified to offend anybody, I relied on the one thing I thought would make everyone happy--which was to write hit songs and hit the high notes. I think I forgot what ...