1. "Colourblind"

2. "Rushes"

3. "Incredible (What I Meant to Say)"

4. "Girl in the Moon"

5. "I'm Not Buying"

6. "Dive In"

7. "Gotta Know Tonight"

8. "Sliding Doors"

9. "Simple Like the Truth"

10. "Better Than That"

11. "Mockingbird"

12. "Mercury Rising"

 

I won’t lie, the tragic news of Darius’ passing lead me to listen to Dive In this week.

 

Darius first cropped up on Popstars in early 2001. Bearded and with a ponytail, he appeared to tick ‘Nasty’ Nigel off early in with his arrogance which was topped off with his OTT audition piece of Baby One More Time. It was clear that Darius had much talent but he didn’t belong in a pop group. Fast forward to Autumn that year and he returned in Pop Idol. He dropped the arrogance, beard and ponytail and just missed out on making the final ten. However, when contestant Rick Waller was forced to pull out due to a throat infection, Darius was brought back in and went almost all the way finishing third behind Will Young and Gareth Gates. His rendition of Tom Jones’ Its Not Unusual was a particular highlight.

 

Darius turned down a record deal offer from Simon Cowell straight away-he didn’t want to be churning out covers. Instead he secured his own deal meaning he could have writing input in his songs. The album Dive In was the result of this and followed him reaching no.1 in August 2002 with the single. Colourblind. No.5 hit Rushes followed before the album debuted at no.6 in the Christmas rush. Incredible became a no.9 hit in early 2003 and Girl In The Moon charted later that Summer but was his only single to miss the top 10.

 

The album is a fantastic listen. I’ve always loved the singles but his talent shines throughout. Personal highlights for me are Girl In The Moon (which I loved when it was realeased), I’m Not Buying, Gotta Know Tonight and Mockingbird. I think he chose his single well but quite a lot of the album would have worked really well as a single.

 

Darius went on to release a second album, Live Twice in 2004 which spawned two further top 10s. The album didn’t sell well though and back in that climate, that was often the end of the road for a Pop star and given how good this album is, it really is a shame Darius never released a third album. He did go on to great success appearing on Popstar To Opera Star and having a distinguished stage career. He also had a dedicated forum on Buzzjack from 2006 to 2017 despite not releasing in that period and his dedicated fans still post in the Darius thread to this day.

 

Thank you, Darius, you will be missed.

 

The singles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know iTunes sales means nothing these days but good to see Colourblind still number 1 there. :P

Rushes is definitely his best song imo. Although the lyric "she looks good enough to eat" is rather WTF.

I’ve just realised the album is called Dive in I’ve been calling it Drive In all these years!? Don’t know how I got that!?

 

Both his albums are good my favourite song by him is Kinda Love!

All of the singles bar 'Girl in the Moon' which is just alright for me were great. 'Dive In' the title track is also decent too. Only got up to that when hunting it out on Tuesday will listen to the rest over the next week I think. Still got the Woolworths label on the CD as well lol!

Edited August 19, 20222 yr by Roba.

Darius - Dive In - Such an amazing and underrated body of work that really deserved far more than it got at the time. Here's my review of the album track by track =

01. Colourblind - 10/10 - Excellent start to the album with this well crafted acoustic guitar-led pop song, catchy as hell with strong vocals. Amazing choice for the lead single & a great way to build momentum.

02. Rushes - 08/10 - The second single where Darius shows off a more rockier tone with fantastic guitars complimented by strings, bass and strong vocal harmonies. Not as atrong as the lead single, but still a strong if a little safe follow-up.

03. Incredible (What I Meant To Say) - 09/10 - Another great track with slick production, strong vocals, cool strings & a catchy as hell chorus. Great single choice.

04. Girl On The Moon - 09/10 - Good solid number with warm vocal harmonies that really soars over the polished production with excellent guitar strums. Another standout that deserved far better than its mere #21 peak.

05. I'm Not Buying - 07/10 - A fairly mellow number with a strong chorus, but not quite as strong as the previous tracks so far, still decent though.

06. Dive In - 08/10 - Opens with growling guitars and upbeat tempo then slows down a bit for the vocals kick in with piano and basslines. A perfect showcase for Darius's vocals and catchy as hell thanks to the excellent percussions.

07. I Gotta Know Tonight - 09/10 - Another firm standout that includes brooding strings overlaid with acoustic guitars and strong vocals that lifts the song in the chorus as it builds and builds throughout. This could have made for a great single as-well.

08. Silding Doors - 10/10 - This has a different feel to the previous tracks as it opens with faster paced guitars with strings in the verses and Darius's busking vocal style. A cool unique track & again could have made for a interesting single.

09. Simple Like The Truth - 07/10 - A nice ballad with a cute melody and mellow beats.

10. Better Than That - 07/10 - Fairly catchy with strong vocals and solid production. Not quite a standout moment, but decent album filler.

11. Mockingbird - 10/10 - Fantastic up-tempo number with excellent vocals and fast acoustic guitars over chugging basslines. This would have been my choice for the second single, this could have easily been a SMASH hit, yet instead feels rather wasted as just an album track.

12. Mercury Rising - 06/10 - Starting off with gentle synths and delicate acoustic guitars before switching up the tempo more than half way. An interesting number that perhaps takes a little too long to get going, an okay ending to such an incredible (pardon the pun) album.



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It's interesting that the most popular tracks Colourblind, Rushes and Mockingbird were all written by Darius before he ever met Simon Cowell.

 

16 year old Darius wrote the lyrics for Rushes on the back of 5 bus tickets on the way to school.

 

'Popstars' Darius complete with pony tail and goatee and wearing a bandana, sang Mockingbird at the Live and Loud festival in Glasgow a couple of months before Pop Idol.

I used to have the live version. Sadly I seem to have lost it. Maybe someone else still has lt?

 

Colourblind had already been produced to demo by Deni Lew and Pete Glennister (The Misfits), who produced most of Dive In.

 

Darius turned up to Pop Idol with his guitar because the producers had agreed to let him sing his own song.

In the audition room he asked to sing his own song. The judges were OK with that but the executive producer, Nigel Lythgoe (the guy who cut Darius from Popstars), refused and sent him out to re_enter without the guitar.

 

When Cowell had Darius locked into BMG via Pop Idol's final 10 contract, Darius handed him the demo of Colourblind. For less than a minute Simon had both Darius and Colourblind!

Just enough time for him to throw the demo tape onto the table and instruct Darius to report to Pete Waterman's studio the following Monday.