“Phil, what an odd choice for your first album.”
Yeah, I know. I could be flooding your feed with Trout Mask Replica takes, but instead we’re talking about Silverchair’s Diorama, mainly because Sean is going to Australia, and somehow that feels like reason enough.
On “Across the Night,” Johns sings “I don't want to be lonely, I just want to be alone”, echoing Robert De Niro’s line from Heat. Who hasn’t felt that way? It’s an intimate, quietly devastating chorus. Then comes “The Greatest View,” an absolute banger that blends old-school Silverchair heaviness with the ambition of their newer sound.
There are low points, I’ll admit it. “Without You” might be the weakest single on the album. But Diorama recovers quickly, starting with the gorgeous “Tuna in the Brine,” then moving back and forth between heavy Silverchair and their new orchestral direction. It peaks with the criminally underrated “Luv Your Life,” before finally settling into “After All These Years.”
When Johns sings “After all these years, forget about the troubled times”, it haunted me for almost twenty years, until I finally gave this album another proper listen. Those words line up perfectly with my forgiving heart. Maybe that’s why Diorama still hits me so hard.
