Silverchair - Diorama

Silverchair’s music has taken a deeper, grandeur approach. Structured in orchestral arrangements, Diorama is an ambitious attempt that on most counts has succeeded sufficiently.

Perhaps Silverchair’s latest offering, Diorama is their most aptly titled. The two meanings given to the word ‘Diorama’ are:

1. A three-dimensional miniature or life-size scene in which figures, stuffed wildlife, or other objects are arranged in a naturalistic setting against a painted background. 

2. A scene reproduced on cloth transparencies with various lights shining through the cloths to produce changes in effect, intended for viewing at a distance through an aperture.

We highlight the phrase “arranged in a naturalistic setting against a painted background.” And like so, from the opening moments of “Across the Night” you begin to feel as if Silverchair have set their latest musical offering to a vast background of a more surreal surrounding. Perhaps it’s the fact that the Pro Musica Sydney orchestra plays a large part on this disc or the realization that the once angst filled, brittle mesh of Nirvana meets Alice in Chains grunge leanings are all but gone – Silverchair have certainly grown in leaps and bounds since the days of “Israel’s Son” and “Tomorrow”. Replacing them are the more sophisticated sounds of “The Greatest View”, replete with a more melodic, pop influenced chorus and the piano filled ending “After All These Years”.

One can say that lead singer and primary song writer Daniel Johns has been through quite a lot in the past few years. His battle with health issues documented best in his previous work, (2000’s Neon Ballroom) and revealed in tracks like “Ana’s Song” are replaced with a slightly less personal stance of love’s lost and diatribe about the upper class. Previous more straight forward melodies and arrangements (like the simplistic beauty that was “Miss You Love”) are now more fleshed out, complicated and without doubt, far more orchestral.

Some may find this plunge into grandeur a little misguided, their songs aren’t as simple and pop accessible as before – but most will see the remarkable growth of the band from the days of looking like a rejected Nirvana promo shoot to a more complete musical entity. Lyrically, Silverchair were never one to wax poetic, and Johns doesn’t come off any different this time around coining lyrics like “Thrust the candle to the dark of your disease / Burn the fishplate execute ill memories”. Maybe it’s the whole grunge band lyric thing in which they began their careers but Johns does manage to write something more heartfelt in arguably the finest Silverchair track to date in “Without You”. Beautifully moving and blissfully sincere, it certainly feels like an ordinary life painted on a much more magnificent background.

Whether you view this from a distance or up close, it’s clear to see that Silverchair’s music has taken a deeper, grandeur approach. Structured in orchestral arrangements, Diorama is an ambitious attempt that on most counts has succeeded sufficiently.

(Atlantic Records)