Neon Ballroom

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Mar 5 1999

Overview Edit

Neon Ballroom is the third studio album by Australian post-grunge band Silverchair and was released on March 8, 1999. The album is certified gold in the United States and contained the singles "Anthem for the Year 2000", "Ana's Song (Open Fire)", "Miss You Love", and "Paint Pastel Princess".

Neon Ballroom was an overhaul of the band's musical style found on its first two albums, Frogstomp and Freak Show. "Anthem for the Year 2000", for example, retained much of the band's youthful rock energy but featured a new rock song structure and various electronic effects. Eight years after the album's release, Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns would say: "To me, I honestly feel like our first record was Neon Ballroom. I've never felt any different. I don't feel like our first two albums were Silverchair: that's our teenage high school band. I don't like them at all. I listen to them and go, 'That's cute', especially the first one, because Frogstomp we were 14. But the second one we're like 16, I'm like 'You're getting older. You're running out of chances'".

"Spawn" was first released on the 1997 soundtrack to the film Spawn. This particular version is a remix of the original version; hip-hop group Vitro added various electronic bleeps and blips to the song. However, the origin of "Spawn" dates back to 1996 when it was originally recorded for inclusion on Freak Show but was later omitted. The Pre-Vitro mix of "Spawn" is not the Freak Show version but a later version recorded when the band demoed tracks for Neon Ballroom. The Pre-Vitro version is also notable because it lacks an entire verse pertaining to "animal liberation". This version was included on the Neon Ballroom Limited Edition bonus disc, the The Best of Volume 1 (2 Disc Limited Edition) in 2000, and the Rarities 1994 - 1999 compilation in 2002.

"Satin Sheets" was originally called "Punk Song #3" and "Paint Pastel Princess" was "All the Same to Me". "Emotion Sickness", "Ana's Song (Open Fire)", and "Miss You Love" are on The Best of Volume 1. An acoustic remix of "Ana's Song" was released on the Best of disc that also included the Rarities bonus. Eight tracks from Neon Ballroom appear on Live from Faraway Stables.

The album has been released in a double pack along with Freak Show. Johns wrote all the songs on the album except for "Spawn Again" (Johns-Gillies). The vinyl version of the album was limited to 5,000 copies worldwide.

In 2007, Johns stated "To me, I honestly feel like our first record was Neon Ballroom. I've never felt any different. I don't feel like our first two albums were Silverchair: that's our teenage high school band. I don't like them at all. I listen to them and go 'That's cute', especially the first one, because Frogstomp we were 14. But the second one we're like 16, I'm like 'You're getting older. You're running out of chances'"..

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Ballroom. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
Catalog number:
69816
Release dates:
  • Mar 16 1999 in United States

Genres

Alternative Rock, Grunge, Post-grunge, Progressive Rock, Rock, Alternative Metal, Alternative Pop, Hard Rock, Indie. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

5 stars Silverchair Continue Progression on NEON BALLROOM...4.5 stars...
Back in 1995 when FROGSTOMP came out, Silverchair's three members were only 15 years old, but needless to say many were impressed with their skills at such an age. Their debut was a fierce blend of aggression and angst packaged neatly in nuggets of throttling guitar rock. FREAK SHOW still had its fair share of metallic grunge but also balanced it off with some varied textures. NEON BALLROOM continues their experiments with melody while sprinkling in some orchestration, keyboards, and lush arrang…
Written by M. Jarrett "SoundgardenFanForLife"
3 stars Ambiguous...is the word
silverchair (note, it's not supposed to a capitalized s did you know that!?) is probably one of the bands where a whole mass will claim to hate them, either labelling them as Nirvanabes or just grunge-rock crap. It's too easy to label them as that and just diss them. It's more rational to look at an album musically and its expression, rather than say the social or historical influences everyone else says about the album. I'm somewhat familiar with Frogstomp, I found it to lack depth. It was some…
Written by Alistair Crowley

Track listing Edit

Credits Edit

  1. arranger

    1. Larry Muhoberac [Arranged By [Piano] "Emotion Sickness"]
  2. composer

    1. Daniel Johns [Vocals, Concept, Guitar]
  3. conductor

  4. design

    1. Brendan Fitzpatrick [Photography]
    2. Daniel Johns [Album Concept]
    3. Erica McIntyre [Artwork By [Layout]]
    4. Greg Bennett [Artwork By [Layout]]
    5. John Watson [Artwork By [Art Direction]]
    6. Kevin Wilkins [Artwork By [Art Direction]]
    7. Kevin Wilkins [Photography]
    8. Melissa Chenery [Artwork By [Art Direction]]
  5. engineer

    1. Bob Ludwig [Mastered By]
    2. Daniel Gilliland [Engineer [Assistant]]
    3. Matt Lovell [Engineer [Assistant]]
    4. Melissa Chenery [Recorded By [Co-ordination]]
    5. Rich Alvy [Engineer [Assistant]]
    6. Steve Baughman [Engineer [Assistant]]
  1. other

    1. Paul Mac [Other [Attacked] "Anthem For The Year 2000"]
  2. performer

    1. Ben Gillies [Drums]
    2. Chris Joannou [Bass]
    3. David Helfgott [piano on track 1]
    4. Jim Moginie [Keyboards [Mogenius] "Anthem For The Year 2000"]
    5. Leah Jennings [cello]
    6. Robert Woolf [piano on track 5]
  3. producer

    1. Nick Launay [Producer, Recorded By, Mixed By]
  4. writer

    1. Ben Gillies [Written-By "Spawn Again"]
    2. Daniel Johns [Written-By]

Other versions Edit

Neon Ballroom 12 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: Murmur
catalog number: MATTCD084
release dates: Mar 5 1999 in Australia
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Neon Ballroom 14 tracks format: 1 x CD
catalog number: 4933096
release dates: 1999 in Europe
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Neon Ballroom 12 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: Epic
catalog number: 69816
release dates: Mar 15 1999 in Europe
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Neon Ballroom 12 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: Epic
catalog number: 4933099
release dates: Mar 15 1999 in Europe
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Neon Ballroom 13 tracks format: 1 x CD
release dates: Mar 10 1999 in Japan
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2 tracks format: 1 x CD
release dates: Mar 15 1999 in United Kingdom
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Trivia Edit

  • Recorded May 9, 1998 Pre-production June 23 – October 7, 1998 Festival Studio in Pyrmont, New South Wales.
  • The recording of "Anthem for the Year 2000" is slightly different on the Australian release than the one found on all other releases (including singles).

Websites Edit

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