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Silverchair

Young Modern | Eleven
Rating: 3.5 stars
July 23, 2007 4:41:16 PM

072707_inside_SILVERCHAIRCDAs fans of 2002’s largely overlooked Diorama know, 28-year-old Silverchair mastermind Daniel Johns has already made the album that proves he’s capable of more than the teenaged bubblegrunge of the group’s bestselling debut, Frogstomp. But that hardly prevents Johns from showing off every trick he can do on Young Modern, the Australian trio’s fifth studio album. Produced by Nick Cave confidant Nick Launay and featuring orchestral arrangements by art-pop eccentric Van Dyke Parks, the new disc careers from dreamy glam-soul ballads (“Waiting All Day”) to angular post-punk rave-ups (“Young Modern Station”) to bouncy musical-theater production numbers (“If You Keep Losing Sleep”) with the manic zest of someone who’s been storing up ideas for five years and has nearly run out of mental hard-drive space. If you’re a stickler for musical cohesion — and, really, why bother with that bummer? — Johns’s stylistic schizophrenia might set you off here; even his singing on Young Modern changes from cut to cut. Everyone else: dig in — this thing is quite a feast.

Silverchair + We are the Fury | Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm Ave, Boston | July 29 | 617.931.2000

COMMENTS

Johns a mastermind? Why stop there? How about genius? The new Brian Wilson? Hell he knows someone who knows Nick Cave. And what about that five year wait between albums? I hear his girlfriend Natalie Imbruglia takes just as long between projects too. Someone who knows the keyboardist in Jet told me. Maybe Dan and Nat can collaborate on something stylised in a kind of schizophrenic way. Have you heard The Disassociatives? If you like Young Modern you'll love Dan and buddy-celebrity-DJ-for-hire Paul Mac together. Call it art brut bipolar depression while we're all about marketing disorder rather than encapsulating it sonically. Young Modern effortlessly transcends all that. It makes the strongest argument I know of for killing one's self. But just in case you don't, there's "Young Modern Station" to get into before we all blow our brains out. What did you call it Michael? A "Post punk rave-up"? If only Mark E. Smith could have been exposed to this. I bet MES wishes he hadn't wasted so much time creating music when he could have been getting laid like Daniel and Paul and Nat and the guy who knows Nick Cave. I don't want to leave you out either Michael. You're getting laid right?

POSTED BY Bill Craske AT 07/24/07 11:24 PM
Bill is a bit of a crusty pants isn't he? Despite his rant, he's won my heart, and I've decided to throw out all my favorite records as a result... Bye bye radiohead, the first 2 weezer albums, Air, Boards of Canada, Postal Service, Pet Sounds, Revolver, all my Floyd, Bjork, Kid Koala, Beck, and so on, etc, etc. I never realized all these bands made me want to blow my brains out so badly, thanks Bill. There's no doubting a bands potential to make a bad album, and now I realize that if you don't write masterpieces at the age of 15, you're doomed to a life of terrible songwriting... Bill can really teach us a lot about music. Lets all thank Bill for the lesson he's taught us. Hate hate hate. Bob

POSTED BY bobsimply AT 08/01/07 4:52 PM

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