Facing the daunting responsibility of the difficult sophomore album, Silverchair
one way or another had to come up with something. Freak Show fortunately
doesn't sound like the rushed, formulated attempt to desperately keep an
audience that you might expect. It's obvious from an initial listen to Freak
Show that these guys still have honest exuberance to spare (which still
helps blur some of their lesser qualities) and a genuine talent for penning
memorable rock songs. So what's new? Here's a run down of what Freak Show
sounds like.
Opener 'Slave' is in the heavy groove vein with crushing stop start guitars
and bass/drum only parts with a Korn like 'break it down' groove section,
climaxing in dissonant guitar melodies before returning to the Sabbath like
groove.
Second song 'Freak' is not unlike the opener but longer and more song orientated
featuring more dissonance in the guitar chords, catchy chorus and messy
90's grunge solo.
Third song 'Abuse Me' is the heavy ballad, with Daniel singing 'come on
abuse me more I like it, keep talking cause it's true' before a heavy build
up then breaking into a catchy heavy second chorus. Probably the next single.
Fourth song 'Lie To Me' follows, reading like a textbook Nirvana hardcore
one minute punk exercise. Aggressive vocals from Daniel.
Fifth song 'No Association' is a big 90's drum heavy, metal work-out with
some stop start and strange timed Korn like grooves. It's well executed
and features some honest sounding screams from Daniel.
The sixth song 'Cemetery' is the string accompanied eccentric emotive ballad
that doesn't really call for it's big production. It's yet another reminder
that alternative 90's rock bands should not have access to classical musicians
and orchestras.
Seventh song 'The Door' opens with a sitar and bursts into big groove rock
with an eastern flavour. It's one of the more upbeat songs on the album.
Eighth song 'Pop Songs For Us Rejects' starts out as jangly pop and then
gets heavier, evolving into more big grooves. Features Daniel singing "now
I'm feeling positive."
Ninth song 'Learn To Hate' starts out with a fairly textbook tortured grunge
verse before bursting into an unexpectedly heavy stop start Helmet like
chorus with 90's hardcore like yelling. It's a great chorus that really
grabs your attention.
Tenth song 'Petrol & Chlorine' opens strongly with sedate middle eastern
chords and vocals accompanied with percussion. One of the more experimental
songs on the album that almost falls flat because of it's pseudo middle
eastern touches, but the strong vocal melodies and make it great.
Eleventh song 'Roses' obviously sounds like it was written around the opening
drum patterns. The verse features drum and bass working together on their
own. It's almost another stop start affair but with a pretty strong and
much repeated chorus.
The twelfth song 'Nobody Came' is their finest slice of teenage angst to
date and probably the highlight of the album. Features many great build
up sections and a good balance between clean tone and heaviness. Daniel's
tortured whine is in great form on this track.
Final track, appropriately titled 'The Closing' starts with sole muted clean
guitar and vocals before bursting into more hard edged angst that borders
punk but reigns in groove.
Silverchair - Freak. (Murmur)
The opening dissonant guitar chords of Freak show a new decidedly more hard
edged Silverchair but when the "yeah, I'm a freak" chorus refrains,
it becomes apparent that Silverchair are still as catchy and accessible
as they have ever been.
Daniel really draws great vocal melodies out of the new heavier stop/start
style and it sounds like there is plenty of enthusiasm in the rhythm section.
Their popular cover of Radio Birdman's 'New Race' follows and is energetic
and faithful to the original, especially as it apparently features Deniz
Tek himself doing the guitar solo.
A studio out-take 'Punk Song #2' is also included on the single and it's
status is justified as it's a fair song that just sounds like California
punk with some Korn like heavy groove action going on.