Neon Ballroom
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Neon Ballroom is the third album from the Australian band, Silverchair. The twelve song album was released on March 16, 1999, and was seen by some as a sign of maturation on the part of the band members. "Anthem for the Year 2000" was the first single from the record - making it to No. 3 on the ARIA charts.
Singer Daniel Johns described Neon Ballroom as a concept album, being an 'audio diary' of the band members' lives at the time. Nonetheless, its stark, experimental musical style drew huge contrast with prior albums (Freak Show and Frogstomp), and such a change in the artistic direction of the group provoked mixed responses from fans. The commercially successful Anthem for the Year 2000 was perhaps received so well because it retained much of the band's youthful rock energy, whereas all other singles marked huge musical leaps from the style then associated with Silverchair and thus were somewhat alienating. The albums sound was more toned down and gave it a Depressing theme.
However, the album's marking of the second stage in Silverchair's career also, to an extent, ushered in an entirely new fanbase, one that appreciated the more experimental and musically dense works on Neon Ballroom such as the fan favourite Emotion Sickness and the fusion-based underdogs like Black Tangled Heart and Dearest Helpless. The musical direction Neon Ballroom was perceived as taking would later continue in their 2002 album Diorama, as well as some of Daniel John's experimental collaborations with fellow Australian artist Paul Mac (Johns and Mac would later form The Dissociatives).
The record's title was apparently created with the attempt of conveying the album's musical theme of combining new, technological, experimental devices and instruments with traditional, classic, orchestral devices and instruments. "Neon", of course, representing the new, and "Ballroom" representing the traditional.
It is certified gold in the United States.
It has been released in a Double Pack along with Freak Show.
"Spawn Again" is a re-recording of the track "Spawn" from the 1997 soundtrack to the film Spawn, originally recorded as a collaboration with hip-hop outfit Vitro. A pre-Vitro version of "Spawn" was also included on the Neon Ballroom limited edition's bonus disc, and later released on the Rarities 1994 - 1999 compilation album in 2000.
Track listing
- "Emotion Sickness" - 6:01
- "Anthem for the Year 2000" - 4:07
- "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" - 3:42
- "Spawn Again" - 3:30
- "Miss You Love" - 4:00
- "Dearest Helpless" - 3:34
- "Do You Feel the Same" - 4:18
- "Black Tangled Heart" - 4:33
- "Point of View" - 3:35
- "Satin Sheets" - 2:24
- "Paint Pastel Princess" - 4:33
- "Steam Will Rise" - 5:18
- All songs written by Johns, except "Spawn Again" (Johns-Gillies).
Ltd. edition bonus disc
- Upon initial release in the UK, the album was issued as a limited edition with a bonus enhanced CD featuring the following tracks:-
- "Anthem for the Year 2000" (a cappella version) - 3:15
- "Spawn" (pre-Vitro version) - 2:56
- "Emotion Sickness" (video)
- The vinyl version of the album it counts of 5000 copies worldwide.
Personnel
Additional personnel
- David Helfgott - piano (track 1)
- Larry Muhoberac - piano arrangement (track 1)
- Robert Woolf - piano (track 5)
- Chris Abrahams - piano (track 8)
- Jane Rosenson - harp (track 8)
- Sweep (Johns's dog) - guest vocal (track 12)
- Paul Mac - keyboards (tracks 2, 4, 10)
- Jim Moginie - keyboard Mogenius (tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11)
- Jane Scarpantoni - cello, string arrangements
- John Harding, Fiona Ziegler, Carl Pini, Alexandra d'Elia, Leoni Ziegler, Emma Hayes, Georges Lentz - violin
- Leah Jennings - cello
- New South Wales Public School singers and friends - backing vocals (track 2)
- George Torbay - conductor (track 2)
- Kevin Shirley - mixing (tracks 2, 5)