After All These Years - Silverchair, Johns, Daniel
Silverchair is Australia's most successful rock band with worldwide sales in excess of 6 million. Diorama is already being hailed as their finest work yet. Featuring the single The Greatest View. The album was co-produ... more »ced by Dave Botrill (Tool, Peter Gabriel) with Daniel Johns. This limited edition includes, Full Color Booklet, Slip-over case + a 10 minute CD-ROM featuring never seen before footage & interviews.« less
Silverchair is Australia's most successful rock band with worldwide sales in excess of 6 million. Diorama is already being hailed as their finest work yet. Featuring the single The Greatest View. The album was co-produced by Dave Botrill (Tool, Peter Gabriel) with Daniel Johns. This limited edition includes, Full Color Booklet, Slip-over case + a 10 minute CD-ROM featuring never seen before footage & interviews.
"Well I thought to myself that Silverchair had out done themselfs with the breath taking "Neon Ballroom". But yet they prove us all wrong when their new album Diorama landed on my door step.The album in one word is "stunning". You can tell that the production has been taken very seriously and the vocal work that has gone on since the pastures of "Frog Stomp". Daniel Johns vocals are quite simply class =) The album Diorama is basically Neon Ballroom but taken to the NEXT LEVEL. If you were into the great melodies, kicking drums and ochestration that makes your hair stand on end then just order the album.My favourites on the album areToo much of not enough, basically a great sounding acoustic guitar, nice punchy bass and good use of strings. Really shows you what Silverchair can do.Across the night, bigger and better than emotion sickness which is basically an epic song and really takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions.The song lengths are also greatly increased and most tracks are 4mins+ which is a good thing not a bad thing which might explain the production being done by Tool's man.Just go the album cause you'll relise what you've been missing when you stick it on =)"
Dio-Drama? - Daniel "i am the ressurection" Johns
jeremy stern | Sydney, Australia | 06/03/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Listening to Silverchair's latest masterpiece, Diorama, one could be mistaken for thinking that Daniel John's nights are spent at the opera and that he has Freddie Mercury albums on repeat. It takes an assured sense of self to believe you have the musical gift to follow in the hallowed path of Queen or Lou Reed, for Diorama is a musical broth simmering with rock sensibilities while heavily infused with rock opera. Confounding his critics though, Daniel Johns and Silverchair do manage to achieve the impossible. Songs such as "Across the Night", "Tuna in the Brine" and "Luv your Life", take you deep into the dreamy landscapes that inhabit Daniel John's mind. Elaborate yet intense, the songs build up to a crescendo, and then, instead of reaching a conclusion, will surprise you with tangents targeting your emotions. "let us get merry, and make another baby,... i don't want to be lonely" from Across the Night and the "closer to everything" verse from Tuna in the Brine are illustrative of this.If Neon Ballroom confronted John's personal demons, then Diorama decides to escape into a surreal realm.Indeed John's almost seems relieved to be free of the anguish that marked his previous efforts. Instead, through songs like "After all these Years" "World upon your Shoulders" and "With or Without You", John's is displaying the maturity that can only be garnered through dark experience. While personal issues such as loneliness are still glossed over, "i'm all by myself" from "Luv your Life" he will then put a positive spin on it"... but its the way i wanna be". Undoubtedly there most accomplished work, Diorama ranks as one of the finds of 2002."
Surreal...
Syd | Eugene, OR | 05/29/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"First of all: buy this CD (you won't be disappointed). Daniel Johns is a genius. This album is phenomenal. Neon Ballroom blew me away. Now Diorama, and-- well, see for yourself. Every track-- and I mean EVERY track, is amazing. It truly takes you into another world, with it's under-your-skin melodies and lyrics. The orchestral arrangements are phantasmagorical and eloquent, Daniel Johns' voice is as breathy, powerful and fascinating as ever, and let's not forget Ben and Chris-- the drums are solid and full of heart, and the bass seems to carry you; everything blends together, and what do you get...? Silverchair. So many hauntingly beautiful songs here-- Work like this doesn't come around very often! I remember so long ago, when I first heard Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'-- I made the comparison; I'll stand by it.
Diorama pleases every emotion. I guarantee that if you came to this page, this disc will astound you. Just let yourself go for an hour (and be sure to turn it up!). While you're at it, go ahead and buy the singles (The Greatest View and Without You). 4 more brand new tracks (->Pins In My Needles"
Silverchair have done it again!
jo_thorn8 | 04/18/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Living in the UK, i find it quite difficult to get hold of any silverchair merchandise so when i was on their website and heard that their new album 'diorama' was to be released soon, i pre-ordered it straight away.
Before i listened to it i really didn't know what to expect because their previous albums have all been so different and i was eager to see which musical direction silverchair had taken. You can tell by the music and lyrics that they have matured a lot and the album as a whole is much brighter than their previous ones.
If you like silverchair for their angry lyrics, the high energy and hard beats then you probably won't enjoy this CD as much because they have quite a lot of mellow tracks. Like 'neon ballroom', silverchair have used orchestral arrangements, but on 'diorama', these arrangements have developed more, and it works incredibly well. There are still the same old heavier tracks such as 'the lever', and 'one way mule', but silverchair have explored even further with their music and even added a few brass instruments to their orchestral arrangements.
If you like silverchair fo their mellow songs then this CD is definately for you. There is even a piano solo on the last track, 'after all these years', which i was quite surprised to find, but it's a beautiful track.Songs i think i should mention are 'across the night', which is a powerful, epic ballad and works really well on this album. 'tuna in the brine' has grown on me. i didn't like it that much when i first heard it but i really like the song now. 'my favourite thing' is my personal favourite track on the cd. it's a beautiful ballad. 'one way mule' is just a cool rockin' tune! It's really great to hear how much happier daniel johns sounds on this cd and this is reflected by the lyrics, 'after all these years forget about all the troubled times', 'execute ill memories', 'you'll be whole again and i'll be whole again'.This album is definately worth buying. It takes you on a memorable musical journey and you can feel every single emotion on 'diorama'."
There is no such thing as "going soft", only growing up
james | Humble,Tx USA | 03/22/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I am 18 years old, I can also proudly say ive been a fan of Silverchair since the good ol' Frogstomp days. Perhaps one of the greatest things that "still" to this day remains a mind blowing factor is that Daniel, Chris, and Ben were merely High School students when Frogstomp first sold 250,000 records. I don't know about you, but I know friends that have bands and they have trouble making their own records, much less having enough talent to sell them. lol. Besides that, although Freakshow is my personal favorite, and probably why I became such a hard-core fan, I always figured Neon Ballroom was easily their best,and filled with the most honest and meaningful gut wrentching emotions Johns has ever thrown out there. It took alot risking that kind of dramatic change not only in the music, but the honest emotional clashing trauma that Johns was personally going through.I like to think of Neon Ballroom as one of the greatest albums ever constructed. Not many people like it, besides other hard core fans like me, but I know ALOT of people, hell, probably every teenager that was going through things they couldn't handle has owned this album atleast once during their lifetime, or atleast should. It is the epitamy of life at its weirdest, and darkest times. But in the end, even after the events that were thought unimaginable to overcome..."steam will rise, esteem will rise."So, after an emotional rollercoaster like Ballroom, I didn't care what kind of music Diorama would be. I just knew it would be excellent. I mean c'mon, why doubt Johns? Rather if its mad, glad, happy,sad, or just plain misunderstood, Johns knows what he's doing. I had (and still have) faith in the man, so Diorama was merely a waiting experience....And let me tell you, my GOD, the wait was worth an eternity. Only "brilliance"can explain Diorama. The backing of symphony orchestra, the beautiful riffs, and the all-out light heartedness of the album puts an overglow to everything that silverchair has done in its past. Rather if its the teenage madness of Frogstomp, the rage of Freakshow, the emotional war of Neon Ballroom, Diorama is the garnish-the finishing touch-the RESULT- of "all the troubled times" these three talented gents have been through. Diorama is silverchair evolving...plain and simple. They started out as angry confused teens, now they have matured to an understanding of the world they though they knew...and it aint so bad afterall.It cant rain all the time. Diorama is proof. (Kinda makes you think about the "rainbow" colored album cover, eh?)"