Comments for Silverchair, Neon Ballroom

This is the most amazing album I''ve ever heard. The lyrics are so profound it''s scary. I don''t care who you are or what you''re going through, but chances are, you can relate to the lyrics of these 12 well-crafted songs. The music is beautiful, too. You can just sit back and lose yourself in it. It''s a 10 for me!!

I wasn`t the one that wrote this. It`s from MTVEveryone who ever had anything bad to say about Silverchair should bekicking themselves right about now. With the release of their debut albumFrogstomp shadowed by the daunting specter of Kurt Cobain`s suicide,Silverchair`s down-under grunge -- not to mention frontman Daniel Johns`rather shivery resemblance to the late Cobain -- earned the high-schoolersa whole lotta sales, naturally. But that went hand-in-hand with gettingtagged "Nirvana Jr.," "Nirvanabees," and, er, everything in between. Thesecond album Freak Show came and went, clearly showcasing the bands`frustrations and taking baby-steps into realms beyond three-manrock`n`roll... while registering about a quarter of Frogstomp`s sales. Thecurrent consumer climate would certainly suggest that Silverchair`s just aslost, forgotten, and outmoded a concept as grunge itself, or at the veryleast, Stone Temple Pilots. Guess again.With their educations behind them and an actual future staring them intheir photogenic faces, Silverchair`s Johns (guitars, vocals), Ben Gillies(drums), and Chris Joannou (bass) got thoughtful, shrugged off the chips ontheir shoulders, and logged some mad studio hours to produce Neon Ballroom,a rather astounding and ballsy leap into that wily pool called SymphonicRock. You want cojones? Silverchair`s got `em in spades. Who`d have thoughtany band would have the guts to put out a song called "Anthem for the Year2000" as its first single and have the goods to back that title up?The spooky musique concrête texture of "Anthem" gives something of a hintof the surprises in store here, even if Johns` snarl and lyrics conjure upghosts of Cobain comparisons past ("Maybe we don`t wanna live in a worldwhere no one cares at all"). But it certainly doesn`t prepare you for thealbum`s opener, "Emotion Sickness," which features support from notedUnstable Genius David Helfgott (the piano-playin` guy who inspired themovie Shine) and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Imagine Metallica and ToriAmos teaming up for a cover of Alanis Morissette`s "Uninvited," and you`remaybe a third of the way there. It`s a jaw-dropping six minutes, all right,especially coming from the shaggy moppets we saw romping about in the videofor "Tomorrow" only four years ago.But while this album is plenty pretty, it`s no hate machine; those urgesgot exorcised on Freak Show. "Anthem" is angry, sure, but it`s just naïvelyhopeful enough to resist blush, and while Johns gets a real Reznor/Mansonshriek on throughout "Spawn Again," the song`s roots are so firmly plantedin straight-edge hardcore that you`ll hardly even notice. Plus it`s beensandwiched between two lush, gorgeous ballads, and somehow theschizophrenia actually works.Even though prickly, punky, snarly stuff like "Satin Sheets" makes perfectaccompaniment for getting all kinds of rocks off, the slower, plaintivesongs are the real meat here. Silverchair could single-handedly restoredignity to the entire Power Ballad genre (if it even had any in the firstplace). "Black Tangled Heart" and "Paint Pastel Princess" are as baroque astheir titles suggest (though a heck of a lot less clumsy), and "Ana`s Song(Open Fire)" could serve as the textbook definition of "ache." These boysdone went and growed up on us, and it`s all good. Can`t wait to hear whatthey do next.