After sparking a craze with their 1995 debut Frogstomp, Silverchair's follow up album Freak Show is a worthy second release.
In an interview around the album's release, one of the members referred to the soft songs as softer, and the loud songs as louder. With tracks like Petrol and Chlorine and Cemetery, there's definitely a softer, vulnerability to the album. Softness and vulnerability that fits well with contrasting songs like the thrashy and furious Learn To Hate and the loud and rocking opening track Slave (arguably the best song on the album, if you ask me)
I believe that Freak Show is a concept album. There's a recurring theme throughout the record of alienation and being a "freak" as a song of the same name suggests. Lyrically, the album has many moments that capture what it's like it be an "outsider" in society: "Sinking through dark black holes, it's never gonna end" "Hating you should be introduced as a new law" "Lived too long and waited to just drown in my self pity, I keep falling down"
Overall, while Frogstomp is my favorite Silverchair album, this is still a very good album with many good songs on it, and is unfortunately the last album Silverchair released that falls under the Grunge/Alternative category.
4/5 stars
