posted 09/29/2008 (Mon) @ 08:00 am
>>> Music Reviews
Silverchair - Young Modern (2007)
Rock / Pop / Chamber Pop
Ten Years Tomorrow
- Young Modern Station
- Straight Lines
- If You Keep Losing Sleep
- Reflections of a Sound
- Those Thieving Birds, Pt. 1/Strange Behaviour/Those Thieving Birds, Pt. 2
- The Man That Knew Too Much
- Waiting All Day
- Mind Reader
- Low
- Insomnia
- All Across the World
If Nirvana were the Beatles of the ’90s, then Silverchair are probably like The Monkees to some. Damned from the get-go as “that band of Nirvana-worshipping teenagers,” their smash single “Tomorrow” (from 1996’s Frogstomp) topped the charts when the band members were fifteen, still in high school, and grunge’s heyday had begun to burn out. They don’t pop up on American radar very much these days, despite winning a record twenty-six (or more) awards in their native Australia.
Those accolades come for good reason. Since their disappearance, they’ve grown up. So has their music. “I think I’m hearing voices,” a vocoder’d Daniel Johns sings on Young Modern’s almost-titular opener, the proggy battering ram “Young Modern Station.” “The interview’s over!”
Where the lyrical subject matter of Frogstomp fell from the womb of television and imagination, Young Modern’s torment resonates with a bit more authenticity: “I need a different liquor/ So sick of getting sicker/ And I’m moving back to the country.”
“Straight Lines” defines anthemic. A lonely, tremolo’d guitar and a sparse piano hook punctuate the silence, building with Johns’ vocals until, like the scene on a jet runway, the many bits and pieces push and push until the song shrieks into flight. Subdued the first time ’round, the choruses soar on grandiose, borderline orchestral sweeps of distorted guitar chords and Johns’ skyscraping for notes.
Much of the rest of Young Modern follows a radically different path, straying closer to grand chamber pop. Akin to Sgt. Pepper’s aided by Pink Floyd’s pedal collection and a modern mixing board, plenty of aural oddities bounce and echo in the distance, such as on the happy-as-a-blonde headbob of “Insomnia.” The regal majesty of closer “All Around the World” and its orchestra indulgence comes face to face with snips of guitar chords, and the two mix and dance until you’re not sure if you’re listening to the Beatles or Queen.
While the appropriately-named “Straight Lines” is probably the most straightforward rocker here, nothing close to the simplistic aggression of Frogstomp or Freak Show peeks its head. Fundamentally pop at its core, Young Modern’s deliberate and intellectual strokes toward its audience’s ears solidify Silverchair as perhaps the highest profile band of recent memory to make such a Beatlesesque transformation. Anyone sick of emo/screamo/hardcore, retread “dance” rock or the bottomless coffers and non-existent pipes of pre-teen pop royalty would do well to breathe in Young Modern’s fresh scent.
Tags: beatles, chamber pop, nirvana, orchestral, pop
