 |  | Greatest Australian Album of All Time |  |
A bold album deserves a bold claim and this masterpiece by Silverchair may just be the best album by an Australian band, ever. Funnily enough it semingly gets snobbed by the Australian media, most likely because of Daniel Johns inability to tour this album due to various ailments following the completion of the album. While it may be fine for Australians to laud ACDC, Cold Chisel and Skyhooks, it's time for a nation to wake up and realize that this album sparked the emergence of one of the greatest Australian frontmen since Michael Hutchence. Johns showed flashes of what he was capable of doing on the previous Neon Ballroom album with tracks such as Ana's Song, Emotion Sickness and Spawn Again, but put together the complete album on Diorama which shows few weaknesses. The album is full of melodic complexities and carries a fairly epic vibe throughout and the Van Dyke Parks orchestrations fit Johns compositions like hand and glove. It would be unfair to call the other members of the band a "backing" group, the unity of a group that has been playing together for well over ten years is apparent in the tightness of them playing and even more ovious in a live setting. Definite highlights on this album are "Tuna in the Brine", "World Upon Your Shoulders", "Too Much of Not Enough" and "Across the Night", they hearken back to their roots a tad on "One Way Mule" however it has a twist of maturity that was not previously seen in Silverchair rock.
June 27, 2008This record simply changed my life. I was a casual Silverchair fan at best before this album. I still remember where i was and what my exact reaction was when i first checked out this record. I was in a Tower Records and it was on a listening station, and afer making a joke about Silverchair still being around i checked out the first song on the listen station. The opening to "Across the Night" hit and i said "this is Silverchair?!" and then "when did Daniel Johns start singing this good?!" This record is a masterpiece and any true fan of modern music should have it in their collection. The only thing that prevents it from being perfect are the inclusions of the songs "One Way Mule" and "The Lever". The two are just really out of place in context with the rest of the record and feel as though either they were forced label wise to include SOMETHING reminiscent of their prior sound, or maybe a self commital issue. even with the two out of place songs this is easily in my top 5 records of all time.
June 23, 2008This album is pure genius. I've never heard such beautiful sweeping songs. Daniel Johns is the most underrated songwriter...he is so very talented and this album is epic.
June 6, 2008I can't say enough about this band. They are so underrated in the states, lost in a pool of sound-alike garbage that's not fit to fix my speakers, let alone blare their lousy crap through them.
Fantastic band, fantastic album. If you enjoyed Neon Ballroom at all, you'll love Diorama... there are even hints of their dynamic roots from Frogstomp.
Highlights from the album:
The Greatest View - Too Much of Not Enough - for the strong melodies
Lever - for the hard edge
Tuna in the Brine - for a nice swaying song and - After All These Years - for a sweet ending.
Yeah, I did almost half the album in highlights.. and I could think of ones for the rest of them.. but then you'd think I was lying.
Great stuff!
April 27, 2008 | | Good album if you weren't expecting Frogstomp. | |
The only song I don't like is Track 3 which sounds completely like the Goo Goo Dolls. If you like them than you will love that song. The rest of the album shows more talent and less influence than Frogstomp which is nice to see. I recommend getting this album.
September 24, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(221 reviews)