Silverchair – Freak

ARTIST: Silverchair                                                 

TITLE: Freak Show

YEAR RELEASED: 1997

CHART ACTION: #12 US, #38 UK

SINGLES: Freak (#25 Mainstream, #29 Modern, #34 UK), Abuse Me (#4 Mainstream, #4 Modern, #40 UK), Cemetery, The Door

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Slave

LINEUP: Daniel Johns, Ben Gillies, Chris Joannou

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Oh, the second album issue strikes hard, which really hit this band of teenagers.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Silverchair should have been just about done with high school when this album was released, and some of the songs were written around the time their debut was taking the world by storm. Does that excuse the sloppy lyrics, half-baked Nirvanaisms, and generally maudlin sensibility.

No, not really.

The lyrics to “Freak” are ham-fisted and dilute a great riff. That’s just the beginning. “Abuse Me” is a Nirvana slow-song rip from a teenager’s journal (which it probably is).  As the album goes on, you get the idea that Johns and company wanted this album to be ‘a lost Nirvana album’, but not even Kurt Cobain at his most juvenile or suicidal could match some of these songs.

I’m going by song by song on this one – some tracks have potential to excite. But as a whole, it’s an unsuccessful attempt at aping an idol.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: Johns has basically disavowed this album.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No

GRADE: C-: You can play “Name the Nirvana song that inspired this” for each track. I exiled all but four, as I have all of Nirvana’s albums and don’t need another.

Silverchair – Frogstomp

ARTIST: Silverchair                                        

TITLE:  Frogstomp

YEAR RELEASED: 1995

CHART ACTION: #9 US, #1 Heatseekers, #49 UK

SINGLES: Tomorrow (#1 Mainstream, #1 Modern, #59 UK), Pure Massacre (#12 Mainstream, #17 Modern, #71 UK), Israel’s Son (#39 Mainstream), Shade

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: No

LINEUP: Daniel John, Ben Gillies, Chris Joannou

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Australian teenagers release their middle-school angst as modern rock songs. It’s better than you’d think for 15-year olds, but they’re still aping Pearl Jam quite a bit.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: After become a sensation in Australia, the US modern / alternative rock industry (which was just as much as an industry as traditional rock) glommed onto “Tomorrow” in their relentless quest to find the next Pearl Jam (or Nirvana or you name it). They succeeded here, as Silverchair became a smash on rock radio and sold a lot of albums.

The fact that the band was a trio who would be freshmen in high school wasn’t a concern. They did sound older than their years, and their songs were pretty heady for kids that young. While they weren’t THAT original, they were good enough to be legit, and wound up better than many other ‘new Pearl Jam’ bands (or whatever…)

I didn’t like it when it was out, probably due to the overwhelming plays on my alternative rock station of choice, but listening now, it’s not that bad, and actually some tracks are pretty classic 90’s grungy alt-rock.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: This hit #1 in Australia, and pretty quickly.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: Yes, a 20^th anniversary release.

 

GRADE: B-:  Not horrible, not original, but not horrible.