Young Modern

Young Modern
Studio album by Silverchair
Released	March 31, 2007 July 24, 2007
Recorded	Seedy Underbelly Studios, Los Angeles, 2006
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	45:12
Label	Eleven Records
Producer	Daniel Johns Nick Launay
Professional reviews
All Music Guide 2007 Xdafied 2007 PopMatters 2007 Entertainment Weekly (A-) 2007 Rolling Stone 2007
Silverchair chronology
Diorama (2002) Young Modern (2007) —
Singles from Young Modern
"Straight Lines" Released: 20 March 2007 "Reflections of a Sound" Released: 14 July 2007 "If You Keep Losing Sleep" Released: 9 October 2007

Young Modern is the fifth album by Australian alternative rock band Silverchair, released on March 31, 2007. Young Modern debuted at #1 on the Australian albums chart on April 15 2007, and #8 on the New Zealand albums chart. Young Modern was Silverchair's fifth consecutive album to debut at number one on the ARIA albums chart, making Silverchair the first band to accomplish this feat in Australia. Young Modern also received four Aria Awards at the 2007 Aria Awards, including Single of the Year (for "Straight Lines") and Album of the Year.

Recording and production

Silverchair spent five weeks in the Australian Hunter Valley in late 2005 to practice and sharpen material Daniel Johns had previously written. Following this, the band recorded intermediate full band demo versions of the songs. To record the final versions of these songs, the band travelled to Los Angeles to record with record producer Nick Launay at Seedy Underbelly Studios. Johns co-produced the album alongside Launay.^[1] During the L.A. sessions, additional songs were written and recorded. Van Dyke Parks was hired to compose orchestral arrangements for three songs: "If You Keep Losing Sleep", "All Across The World" and the 3 part epic "Those Thieving Birds/Strange Behaviour".^[2] Johns and Parks travelled to Prague to have the orchestral arrangements recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.^[3] Unlike previous Silverchair albums, Young Modern was funded independently by the band, rather than by a record label. This was done to "remove the added label pressures", according to Billboard.^[4] The name Young Modern comes from a nickname given to Silverchair's lead singer, Daniel Johns, by Van Dyke Parks during their time working together on Diorama in 2002.^[5] The album features various guest appearances from Australian and international musicians such as Luke Steele, Julian Hamilton and Paul Mac.^[6]

Album and single releases

Young Modern was released on 30 March 2007 in Australia, and 24 July 2007 in the United States of America.^[7] The album was released in several versions - the original contained 11 songs, while the iTunes version contained an extra song, "English Garden". A limited edition DVD was also released, which contained a documentary entitled "The making of Young Modern", as well as the "Straight Lines" music video.^[7]

The first single from Young Modern, "Straight Lines", was released on 20 March 2007, a week before the album's release.^[8] "Straight Lines" entered the ARIA Charts at #1 on 25 March 2007, and held that rank for four weeks.^[9] It also peaked at #11 on the RIANZ charts.^[10] Furthermore, "Straight Lines" was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association.^[11] On 28 October 2007, "Straight Lines" won "Best Selling Australian Single" at the ARIA Music Awards of 2007, as well as "Single of the Year".^[12] A second single, "Reflections of a Sound", was released on 14 July 2007 as a digital single.^[13] The music video for "Reflections of a Sound" was first screened on 8 June 2007, and was produced by Damon Escott and Stephen Lance of Head Pictures.^[14] The third single from Young Modern was "If You Keep Losing Sleep", released on 9 October 2007.^[15] The song spent one week on the ARIA charts at #16, before dropping out of the charts.^[16] The music video for "If You Keep Losing Sleep" was orchestrated by Van Dyke Parks, and was produced by Damon Escott and Stephen Lance, who also created the "Reflections of a Sound" video.^[17] The video was described by Molly Meldrum as "the best video I’ve seen from Australia ever".^[18]

Response

Young Modern was received with great enthusiasm from reviewers. All Music Guide's review said the album contained "catchy melodic hooks, inspired lyrical themes, and stunning string arrangements", and called it the "pinnacle of the band's fascinating development". Reviewer Clayton Bolger heaped praise on most of the songs on the album, calling "Straight Lines" an "instant rock classic".^[5] Review website Xdafied was equally impressed by the album, and was the second site to praise the opening track, "Young Modern Station", stating that it "will leave you in awe at its refreshingly different chord progression". Xdafied's reviewer summarised the review by calling the album "a unique masterpiece".^[19] Meanwhile, Rolling Stone reviewer David Fricke called Silverchair's members "young (in their late twenties)...[and] aggressively modern",^[20] and Entertainment Weekly called the album a "polished glam-rock suite".^[21] Sputnik Music reviewer Tyler Fisher also approved of the album, although he did not think it was as good as it was made out to be, commenting "It is not as good as the ARIA awards will undoubtedly make it out to be but still one of the better mainstream listens of the year."^[2] Nick Pearson of PopMatters, meanwhile, was highly critical of the album. He began his review with the statement "Once you reach the level of intellectual maturity where you can tell the difference between cryptic but poetic lyrics and nonsensical crap, you have outgrown Silverchair", and continued in the same fashion throughout. Pearson likened Johns to Kurt Cobain, saying they share a common inability; "his inability to write lyrics". His only praise was for the third single released from the album, "If You Keep Losing Sleep", stating "'If You Keep Losing Sleep' is proof that Silverchair are capable of recording interesting music".^[22]

Personnel

Track listing

All songs were written by Daniel Johns unless otherwise noted.^[7]

1. "Young Modern Station" – 3:11 (Daniel Johns and Julian Hamilton)
2. "Straight Lines" – 4:18 (Daniel Johns and Julian Hamilton)
3. "If You Keep Losing Sleep" – 3:20
4. "Reflections of a Sound" – 4:09
5. "Those Thieving Birds (Part 1) / Strange Behaviour / Those Thieving Birds (Part 2)" – 7:26
6. "The Man That Knew Too Much" – 4:19
7. "Waiting All Day" – 4:28 (Daniel Johns and Julian Hamilton)
8. "Mind Reader" – 4:28 (Daniel Johns and Julian Hamilton)
9. "Low" – 3:48
10. "Insomnia" – 3:06
11. "All Across the World" – 4:01
12. "English Garden" (iTunes only) – 4:23

Bonus DVD

1. The making of Young Modern documentary.^[7]
2. "Straight Lines" video

Charts

See also

Music of Australia Portal

• Silverchair albums
• Full discography

References