Time machine: March 8th, 1999

Silverchair - Neon Ballroom
(Sony/Murmur/Columbia, 1999)


Maybe not the music you would guess that I like, but ten years ago in 1999 when this was released I was sixteen years old. Raging with hormones and emotions like all other teenagers. Silverchair was one of the bands that really meant alot to me, maybe especially this album. Neon Ballroom was the third album by the Australian trio, still in their teens themselves and maybe at the peek of their creative powers. Even though in my humble opinion Diorama from 2002 is their masterpiece, if they have one.

If you put on Neon Ballroom today it may sound a little dated. The band obviously were big fans of Nirvana and the whole grunge-wave of the early nineties, as were I. Anyhow, it's a bit fun to listen back to it now - so many memories that pop up in my mind. Some good, others really really embarassing. The most embarassing is to think of how much the somewhat cliche-filled lyrics meant the world to me. Some samples underneath.

From "Emotion Sickness"

"Emotion sickness
Addict with no heroin
Emotion sickness
Distorted eyes
when everything is clearly dying"

From "Black Tangled Heart"

"Maybe you'll kill yourself
Before I get a turn
Maybe I'll fall in love
And never learn"

That said, the record is quite good - maybe not so great now that I am in my mid-twenties, but for every teenager there still is enough of teenage angst and emotional lyrics going on here. My favourites at the time were "Anthem for the Year 2000", "Ana's Song (Open Fire)", "Miss You Love" and "Black Tangled Heart". Needless to say, I was a sucker for the ballads with emotional lyrics.


"Ana's Song (Open Fire)" is a song about the songwriter and vocalist Daniel Johns struggle with anorexia at the time. A song I guess others in the same situation would relate to and I myself thought and still thinks are quite gripping.

So, that's the time machine for you.


Silverchair - "Ana's Song (Open Fire)"

Comments

Dunja said…
i have no idea how i got here, but i can relate to everything you wrote in this post. although my music taste is somewhat different than in 1999. (i was 15 then), i still remember neon ballroom as an album that meant the world to me at the time.