My opinions on the new Evanesence record.
I approve of this album ♥ Yep. That’s my conclusion. I LOVE the slightly unpolished feeling in comparisson to Fallen and The Open Door. I think Nick made an AWESOME work with them, he was able to blend all the instruments and the vocals in a way you can identify everything that’s going on, and get drowned in the music as it goes on.
You definitely need some listens before you can have an opinion on this album because there’s a lot to swallow, a lot of variations between verses and choruses, and I praise the band for this, because Evanescence has never EVER been as creative with the tempos and the drums as they are with the melodies (their forte) and their lyrics or even electronic elements. This shows that it was not only Amy controlling everything, but she gave room for the musicians to be creative in their own way, and this gives the new album a feeling of unity they have never had before.
I disagree with people saying there isn’t any “emotion” in the new music, mainly because of the lack of melody. I think, while it has a lot more of a “hard rock” feeling instead of “metal”, so to speak, there are a lot more melodic games in the instruments, not only with her voice or the synthesizers like they used to, but are not as obvious as before. That’s one of the little fun games the album has that you discover the more you hear it. I feel it’s far more profound than TOD and the feeling behind it feels more truer, and less faked. I found TOD to be a little stiff, to be completely honest.
They way I see it, it’s the type of music I wanted to hear from the band before they released The Open Door, which I thought was way too polished and was really egocentric with songs about “me me me” all the time, the band way in the background and her voice way on top of the rest of the instruments with just a bit of the emotion she had always had up to that point. I remember feeling a little upset after hearing it the first time but in the end it grew on me. In fact, I remember perfectly what I felt the first time I heard every one of their albums and EPs, (hell, I even know the DAY I first heard them on the radio) and when I heard the latest self titled effort, it resembled a lot to what I felt when I heard Fallen, an album I attribute as one of the turning points in my life. Now, you would think after changing so much and hearing a vast variety of different styles of music years after, that I would get over it. I thought so too. That is the magic this band has over me and they really surprised me with their latest album.
Mind you, I am not the type of “fan” who blindly accepts everything they release. I cannot stand Snow White Queen, for example, or Forever you (they’re lame and boring). I even have my resentment towards Call Me When You’re Sober (I mean, really? What’s up with that giggle at the end. And the freaking dance sequence on the video, UGH. Worst Evanescence memory ever.), and I really hate the fanboys and fangirls who try to act and look like her or are just plain annoying and think it’s the best thing in the whole world. If I am a critic with the things I hate, believe me, I am WORSE with the things I like.
It took me 15 listents before I made my mind with this album. Before I posted the first listening - “z0mg diz da best album evahhhhhh” - reaction. I know the band, 8+ years of religiously swallowing their stuff and knowing every single version of every single song that has ever been released one way or the other, I am aware of the changes of perception you have when you change from an adolescent to a grown up person, I am aware there’s way more melodic, dramatic, dark, whatever youwanttocallit music out there, and, after much thought and listening sessions, I just cannot agree with the people who find no true feeling in this album, comparing it to their old stuff. I think that will always be the common reaction at the begining of a new release, people will always prefer the old material. I still do think I prefer fallen and the old EPs over this one, but I cannot expect the band to come up with the same thing they did 15 years ago. I respect their growth and change that they NEED to make as artists and musicians, and I applaud that they managed to embrace that change and yet, still maintain the core and heart of what the music represents. I very much live that this is their self titled album. It is the core of evanescence.
The standard version feels incomplete, though. I don’t think it works as a whole, but the deluxe version (4 more tracks) definitely fills that void. And that is another aspect I’m loving of the band this time around: to be honest, I always felt they were very cheap with the ammount of material they put on an album. Fallen has merely 11 tracks (3 damn good bonus tracks were released but as extras on singles and really rare versions of the disc which you could only find in places like Japan. On countries like mine, specially back then, you were not able to get any of this material officially [still don’t, ha! but at least it’s easier to order them online], so you had to download them, and personally I really like to have everything on a CD release) and TOD was only 13 songs long (it had bonus tracks too, but quite frankly I don’t find them too interesting). If this were a band with songs that are 10 minutes long it wouldn’t be a problem, but this is a mainstream band, and the songs are never longer tham 5:30 minutes (on official albums). The Deluxe Edition however, has 16 tracks, and has a bonus DVD that has an insight to the making of the album, the video, the promo photoshoots and the meaning behind each of the songs. Goodies that us geeky fans just love. (AND it’s digipack. I love digipacks *.*) Now, THAT is something I will be pretty happy to buy.
So yeah, this was kind of long, filled with bad grammar and terrible orthography (english is not my first language, I apologize), and I’m sure no one will ever read this in its entirety, BUT, Simply put, this album fucking kicks ass.
This is reportedly their second single (My Heart is Broken, and yes, I agree it is THE CHEESIEST SONG NAME EVER), although maybe Lost in Paradise is fighting for that spot (It’s not even released yet and last time I heard it was #30 something on the iTunes chart). This is the Radio edit!. I usually hate radio edits because they make them lighter and more acceptable to the brainless radio fans who are used to lame music, but I just love this version. It tricks the typical listener into thinking it’s a ballad (people love Evanescence ballads. no surprise there), but when the second verse starts, it continues to be like the album version, which turns out to be surprisingly heavy, and heavy does not have a place in the radio. But this edit will trick them, and I thought that was brilliant. [insert evil laugh here].
Enjoy ♥
Ps. the lyrics are brilliant. Simple and honest. I still don’t understand why some people say it has no heart. I truly don’t.
Sweet sleep, my dark angel
Deliver us from sorrow’s hold
alsdkjfhdlkjghsdlfgjkhdf. *chokes up a bit*
:’) I am so proud of them
(like they cared)
Oh dear someone make me stop writing.
