Freak Show by Silverchair

Freak Show, Silverchair's second album and the Murmur follow-up to Frogstomp, finds the Newcastle, New South Wales trio snarling back at everyone who piled expectations on them after the debut took off in Australia and America. Nick Launay, a producer with Midnight Oil and the Birthday Party on his résumé, sat behind the desk, and the band sounds like it's enjoying itself: Ben Gillies reckoned this one was more fun to make, and Chris Joannou was glad to finally hear his bass pushed up in the mix.

It's still grunge at the core, leaning toward post-grunge, with Daniel Johns' guitar and voice all clenched jaw and raw nerve over Gillies' pounding drums. Juice's Simon Wooldridge heard the songs as a furious answer to the pressure Frogstomp brought. "Freak" gave them another number-one single at home, "Abuse Me" and "The Door" kept the heat on, and the album went straight in at the top of the ARIA chart. Neon Ballroom came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.