Daniel Johns
FutureNever
Album · Alternative · 2022 · BMG Rights Management (Australia) Pty Ltd.
Ex-Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns mingles his storied musical past and many potential next directions across this mosaic-like second solo album. Following the revealing 2021 podcast Who Is Daniel Johns?, plus writing credits for Slumberjack, The Presets, Empire of the Sun, and Flume and Tove Lo, FutureNever features genre-hopping guest spots from repeat collaborators Van Dyke Parks and What So Not.
The elaborate orchestration of later Silverchair records is well represented on opener “Reclaim Your Heart,” with dramatic strings and piano prompting Johns’ gravity-defying vocals to soar ever higher. In even more direct callbacks to his former act, Johns adds a third part to the Young Modern-era song “Those Thieving Birds” and riffs on the band’s 1997 single “Freak” with the Broadway-gone-R&B purplegirl team-up “FreakNever,” complete with children chanting to eerie effect. Johns avoided releasing any advance singles to preserve the sustained sound world here, which only makes the album’s ambitious twists and turns feel all the more impactful.
The elaborate orchestration of later Silverchair records is well represented on opener “Reclaim Your Heart,” with dramatic strings and piano prompting Johns’ gravity-defying vocals to soar ever higher. In even more direct callbacks to his former act, Johns adds a third part to the Young Modern-era song “Those Thieving Birds” and riffs on the band’s 1997 single “Freak” with the Broadway-gone-R&B purplegirl team-up “FreakNever,” complete with children chanting to eerie effect. Johns avoided releasing any advance singles to preserve the sustained sound world here, which only makes the album’s ambitious twists and turns feel all the more impactful.
FutureNever
Daniel Johns
Ex-Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns mingles his storied musical past and many potential next directions across this mosaic-like second solo album. Following the revealing 2021 podcast Who Is Daniel Johns?, plus writing credits for Slumberjack, The Presets, Empire of the Sun, and Flume and Tove Lo, FutureNever features genre-hopping guest spots from repeat collaborators Van Dyke Parks and What So Not.
The elaborate orchestration of later Silverchair records is well represented on opener “Reclaim Your Heart,” with dramatic strings and piano prompting Johns’ gravity-defying vocals to soar ever higher. In even more direct callbacks to his former act, Johns adds a third part to the Young Modern-era song “Those Thieving Birds” and riffs on the band’s 1997 single “Freak” with the Broadway-gone-R&B purplegirl team-up “FreakNever,” complete with children chanting to eerie effect. Johns avoided releasing any advance singles to preserve the sustained sound world here, which only makes the album’s ambitious twists and turns feel all the more impactful.
The elaborate orchestration of later Silverchair records is well represented on opener “Reclaim Your Heart,” with dramatic strings and piano prompting Johns’ gravity-defying vocals to soar ever higher. In even more direct callbacks to his former act, Johns adds a third part to the Young Modern-era song “Those Thieving Birds” and riffs on the band’s 1997 single “Freak” with the Broadway-gone-R&B purplegirl team-up “FreakNever,” complete with children chanting to eerie effect. Johns avoided releasing any advance singles to preserve the sustained sound world here, which only makes the album’s ambitious twists and turns feel all the more impactful.
