Diorama is the fourth studio album by Australian rock band Silverchair, released on 31 March 2002 by Atlantic and Eleven. It won the 2002 ARIA Music Award for Best Group and Best Rock Album. The album was co-produced by Daniel Johns and David Bottrill. While Bottrill had worked on albums for a variety of other bands, Diorama marked the first production credit for lead singer Johns.
Johns wrote most of the album at the piano instead of his usual guitar, while the band took a 12-month break following their previous studio album, Neon Ballroom. Silverchair worked with composer Van Dyke Parks on Diorama; the album contains numerous orchestral arrangements and power ballads, a change from the grunge music typical of their earlier work, but consistent with the band's previous orchestrations on Neon Ballroom. The album's title refers to "a world within a world". Four singles were released: "The Greatest View", "Without You", "Luv Your Life", "Across the Night". All appeared on the Australian singles chart.
Diorama was successful in the charts but was not as well received by critics as the band's earlier albums. It reached number one on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Albums Chart and received a rating of 71 (out of 100) on review aggregator Metacritic. It was certified triple-platinum by ARIA, selling in excess of 210,000 copies, and won five ARIA Awards in 2002. Diorama was nominated for Highest-Selling Album in 2003, and three songs from the album were nominated for awards over the two years.
I always thought Silverchair to be a grunge band. On this album most of the grunge and rock has disappeared. Instead it's full of ballads in a baroque or prog-pop format. The songs with some guitars have the sound of a declawed tiger; a lot of compression to make the guitars sound radio friendly. The lyrics are of a subpar level. It all sounds like a mediocre band trying to force commercial success and I don't like it. A proper candidate to a Night of the Proms event. And that is not a compliment.
Man I’ve become a total sucker for these user suggestions… what can I say I’m really loving the variety of albums that I would never have heard of but for this project, so if an album is something I enjoy I’m defaulting to a 5 unless there is something that puts me off it in any way. I like living in my world of awesome music!
Silverchair is a group I knew nothing about. I love the cinematic over-the-top sound along with some other interesting things (do I hear some rock and maybe strong undercurrents of grunge?). How interesting and great to listen to. Score yet another 5 to the users!
Highly refined product in that operatic/orchestral rock genre, maye a little more pop-oriented than I expected. It is not really my preference, though I didn't dislike it. I'll recognize it as above average though, for those whose thing this is.
I'm really surprised at how much I ended up enjoying this, because this is definitely not my go-to type of rock music. Probably would have filed this under "boring post-grunge for divorced dads" on a worse day, but man I had a good time.
The opening track did not hook me. But after a song or 2, it was ok.
High point at 'One Way Mule'.
Then some weaker song with 2 enjoyable ones: 'Too Much of Not Enough' and 'The Lever'
I remember them as a Nirvana type band. This is more Panic At The Disco or My Chemical Romance. These guys did it first, though. It's not bad, but it doesn't really speak to me. I like the album with the frog better.
Meh. Over produced mediocre stuff.
My personal rating: 3/5
My rating relative to the list: 3/5
Should this have been included on the original list? No.
Silly goofy butt rock, hard to enjoy the later tracks that take themselves seriously when most of the LP sounds so incredibly over the top and melodramatic.
Silverchair had a pretty awesome debut album especially for the band to a bunch of teenagers. Then they progressed with time and this album is more of a regression than anything. They changed their style immensely and it doesn’t work too well. They get their groove a little better with their last album but Diorama was definitely the low point among their discography. Too poppy an ballady for a band that had a solid rock debut. Interesting choice overall. 5.0/10
The only way I knew this was Silverchair was due to the name on the album cover. Did not recognize it at all, and once I did, it was a bit of a disappointment.
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