Review: Silverchair & Hanson

Review: Silverchair & Hanson

Silverchair 'Young Modern' & Hanson 'The Walk': Aidin Vaziri | When child actors grow up, they stick up convenience-store clerks and star in poorly produced porn videos. But what becomes of their musical counterparts? This week a pair of prepubescent bands from the '90s return with albums that might have the answer. In their 2.5 million-selling prime, Australia's Silverchair was like a Playskool version of Nirvana, mining all the Seattle band's glory without any of the actual guts. A decade later, the trio is still chasing trends - in this case the sweeping, orchestral pop of Coldplay and Keane - and still making it sound oddly convincing. With Beach Boys/Joanna Newsom collaborator Van Dyke Parks on board, the group even manages a pair of transcendental moments on the independently produced "Young Modern" with "If You Keep Losing Sleep" and a dynamic three-song suite that opens with "Those Thieving Birds, Part 1." Silverchair's family-friendly American counterpart, Hanson (left), similarly recorded, produced and released its latest album unaided. On "The Walk," the band many people blame for ushering in the last teen-pop tsunami with "MMMBop" has matured beyond recognition. For evidence, look no further than "Great Divide," a power ballad that takes on the global AIDS crisis with the assistance an African children's choir. It's not all heavy going, but the brothers' overly earnest appreciation of classic rock 'n' soul, documented in the song "Been There Before" and evident throughout the disc, makes you long for just one more, "Mmm bop, ba duba dop." These guys should really take some pointers from Dustin Diamond