3 posts tagged “silverchair”
Okely dokely, time for the all important 'best albums of 2007' list. As per last year, this'll cover the albums that did things to me during 2007, not just albums that were released in 2007. I'll also post my favourite track from each to share the goodness.
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| 1. Public Image Ltd. - Metal Box These top few albums have all been listened to excessively, and it's hard to put one above the other, but for taking me to new places, the top spot has to go to PiL. I was obsessed with remaining outside my comfort zone while I let this one wash over and through me. I've yet to find anyone who will listen to it with me though... Read my original post |
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| 2. Silverchair - Young Modern So extremely impressed with this album at first, I even credited the 'Chair with heralding a new artistic movement (see my outrageous claims at the link below). This album was such a bold and cutting-edge artistic statement from a band that sell millions of albums and have their songs heavily featured on commercial radio. The thing is, the songs from Young Modern were still featured on commercial radio whilst being artistic masterpieces at the same time. That's no small feat and will be difficult to repeat. Read my original post |
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| 3. Radiohead - In Rainbows So consistently amazing, and so challenging at the same time, will they ever disappoint? Last.fm tells me I've listened to tracks off 'In Rainbows' more than any other album, and even though I've only been scrobbling since June, I'm guessing it would still stand for the whole of 2007. And fuck, the discbox is really nice... PS, I tried about 8 times to upload any track off this album and get the artwork to appear, but no luck. Vox has fully shat me trying to upload all these tracks, I tried 2-3 times for at least 4 of these files :-| |
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| 4. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning Obsessed, impressed and thoroughly absorbed with both 'I'm Wide Awake...' and 'Cassadaga', I overplayed both of them to the point that I didn't want to listen to either of them for months. I've put them back on a few times in the last couple of weeks, and though all that initial buzz is gone, I really love them again. Probably my lyrical highlight of 2007 with amazing lines like "If you swear that there's no truth and who cares / why do you say it like you're right?" and the gorgeous "You were born inside a raindrop / I watched you falling to your death". Read my original post |
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| 5. Sex pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks I surprised myself with how much I've embraced this album. I always assumed it would be shit for the sake of being shit, musically inept and just arrogant and annoying. The songs are really deserving of all the praise they're given, it turns out, quite apart from all the attention they got for their attitude and bass player. Thanks to Lester Bangs for changing my mind. |
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| 6. The Call - The Walls Came Down Never heard of 'em before a guy at work put me onto them. I thought I might be politely listening to and returning his CD, but it turned into a new favourite. And helped me conquer my fear of 80s music at the same time. Mainly, though, I'm just a sucker for those political question-the-establishment type lyrics. Read my original post |
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| 7. Angus & Julia Stone - Chocolates & Cigarettes So serene, so laid back and paints such amazing mental pictures, this one has kinda crept along and remained a constant favourite for far longer than I thought it would. Sparse to the point of being desolate, mellow to the point of being boring but instead becoming just the opposite (huh?), this EP (and all their other stuff) really speaks to me. My wife digs it too, so it's kinda our thing. |
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| 8. The Fauves - Nervous Flashlights Hard to pick which album gets the gong, because this obsession was about all their albums being listened to on shuffle for months. They are so clever, so insightful, so funny, so lazy and so Australian. Who else could write a song called 'Australian Gigolo' with lines like "The Joy of Sex is a valuable text / hey baby baby put that down I don't want you to know what's coming next." I just love Andy Cox's brain, but could never get all sycophantic and tell him, because as he sings on this album, "When you see me on the street / you know I am not approachable / if I'm someone you'd like to meet / I don't want to talk to you ... / I am not approachable / you know I think I'm better than you" Read my original post and listen to the other tracks I've uploaded |
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| 9. NIN - Year Zero Impressed with the cool political concept behind the album from reading reviews and interviews, I took it upon myself to get into the album. Never a fan of the industrial sound before, it took a bit of doing, but now I'm into a bunch of their albums and their (his) stuff is right up my alley. I hear they're gonna make a movie out of this album, kinda like 'The Wall'. I have a feeng it will be a masterpiece. Read my original post |
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| 10. Black Sabbath - Heaven & Hell I'd never given the Dio years the time of day before because I'm such a massive fan of the Ozzy stuff that I thought it was near blasphemous. All the hype around the 'Heaven & Hell' reunion (aka a Dio-fronted Black Sabbath unable to use that name thanks to Sharon Osbourne) made me want to give it a go though. What I found were a bunch of albums that stood on their own and could wear the Sabbath moniker with pride, especially their first one that gave them their new officially sanctioned band name, 'Heaven & Hell'. |
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| 11. The Waifs - Up All Night My obsession with the Waifs was actually spawned from an mp3eme this year. I was struggling for a song that had great harmonica playing in it, remembered one of the couple of Waifs songs that I knew and loved, and then subsequently went mental over their 'Up All Night' album. Their new one, 'Sun, Dirt, Water', was released this year, and it's fantastic too. Read my original post |
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| 12. Clare Bowditch - What Was Left I was completely taken by the beauty of this album back at the start of the year, with songs that take you through a range of emotions, and leave you affected in some way after it's all over, sometimes feeling a bit uneasy or slightly down. It's good to get an emotional response to music, it's what it's all about. Read my original post |
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| 13. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away This album was one of the first that I loved in 2007, and was the subject of one of my earliest posts. It's become my favourite Shins album, and it also posesses some of the best cover art of the year. A real progression for them and challenging/rewarding for the listener too. Read my original post |
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| 14. Agalloch - The Mantle A friend who still keeps a finger on my waning \metal/ pulse recommended this album to me because he thought I'd dig the atmospheric, epic nature of the songs. I've fully embraced it, and love to put it on and get taken away to another world, a world painted by changing guitar melodies and tempos and great use of the Zeppelin patented 'light and shade'. |
Other noteworthy obsessions to round out the top 25:
15. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BRMC
16. I Heart Hiroshima - Tuff Teef (Read my original post)
17. Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning (Read my original post)
18. Gotye - Like Drawing Blood
19. Ramones - Rocket To Russia
20. The Cult - Electric (Read my original post)
21. Richie & The Creeps (Read my original post)
22. Kings Of Leon - Because The Times (Read my original post)
23. Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation
24. Sarah Blasko - What the Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have (Read my original post)
25. Beasts Of Bourbon - Little Animals
Molly Meldrum says it's as good as Sgt. Peppers. He's a twat, but it's good to hear that I'm not alone in what I'm about to say about Silverchair's new album 'Young Modern'.
I'll start low-key by admitting that I've never been a huge Silverchair fan. The first album of theirs that I truly enjoyed was Diorama -- if I'm honest, though, I found it to be overly-lush in its production and use of strings, and just not edgy enough for my taste. However, I knew the songs were good and Daniel Johns' songwriting had really come of age.
But then, at a time set against my obsession with things like post-OK Computer Radiohead, Johns released a pop / electronic / rock / slightly strange / definitely cutting-edge collaboration with dance music artist/producer Paul Mac. 'The Dissociatives' was the perfect album for me at a time when I really found myself searching for something new, something I'd never heard before, and something to break the standard rock mold. I guess that's exactly what Daniel Johns was trying to achieve by stepping away from Silverchair. (footnote - the cherry on top for my graphic design-obsessed eye was the fact that the artwork and videos were amazing, perfectly matching the funky modern music with funky modern graphics).
Perhaps not surprisingly, but certainly without precedent for me, I found myself really looking forward to a new album by a band that I would never have overly cared about before. With Johns' songwriting maturing on the last couple of Silverchair albums, and all that he learnt with Paul Mac on The Dissociatives, I just felt it was going to be something special.
It's actually more than just 'something special' though -- I'm truly blown away by it.
Young Modern is the work of a musician and songwriter who has mastered his craft. Johns is at the top of his game on this record. I actually don't think that he'll ever be able to produce something quite this perfect again. All the elements are in absolute harmony, an almost accidental by-product of his talent, his headspace and the times.
Gone are all the rock cliches of former Silverchair albums. Gone is everything that could allow me to consider Silverchair just a competent mainstream rock act. And gone are any of the more experimental Dissociatives moments that were more 'interesting' than engaging.
'In' is a selection of 11 songs that never once get boring. 'In' is what could be termed a 'modernist' Silverchair ideal - no unnecessary ornamentation - just pure function and form with an eye for the aesthetic. And 'in' is the new cool, the next sound. Just as Radiohead's 'OK Computer' was described as the first album of the new millenium back in 1997, in Young Modern I'm hearing a precursor to the next decade, from here and now in 2007.
The album artwork represents this spectacularly. It's a take on the De Stijl artist Piet Mondrian's painting 'Composition with Yellow Blue and Red.' The De Stijl movement, in part, gave rise to modernism in art and design back in the early part of the 20th century. It was a backlash against excessive ornamentation and decoration, much like this record is a move away from the lush epic arrangements and over-production of the previous couple of Silverchair records. Just as the white space between the lines on Mondrian's painting gives the eye a place to rest and to enjoy the stronger elements without being overwhelmed, the space that Silverchair leave in the arrangements here allows every sound from every instrument to be absorbed, and lets the song really surround the listener. The clever 3D take on 'Composition with Yellow Blue and Red' captures my point above -- that just as De Stijl was the early stages of modernism, Young Modern is the birth of a new kind of modernity out of the ashes of post-modernism.
Lyrically, though, it's a look back at Johns journey through illness and uncertainty to arrive at a point where things make sense again, to no longer be "stalled at Young Modern station". He tackles topics like insomnia, depression, distance and sickness without much resolution. But on the final track he seems to wind up with a mantra to take him into the future:
I couldn't find just one of the songs to back me up here -- every one of them forms part of the whole -- but I chose three that are quite different from each other, and will go someway towards demonstrating the diversity within total unity that is Young Modern.All across the world
There are things we need to forget and forgive
Sometimes we have to try and shed the damage we don't need
I'm really excited by the new Silverchair album 'Young Modern' -- I've only had it a few days now, but it's very different for Silverchair, and has a lot in common with Daniel Johns' side project of a few years ago, The Dissociatives. That was one of my favourite albums of 2004, and Young Modern looks like being one of my favourites of 2007. Stay tuned for a full lowdown, for now enjoy the fantastic first single 'Straight Lines'.
