Evanescence “Fallen” (3.5 stars)
Before “Fallen” (Wind-up Records) came out in 2003, the most anyone had heard about the band from Arkansas were two songs that seemed to be played across the radio indefinitely, “My Immortal” and “Bring Me to Life”. I remember asking my mother at the time (we were listening to one of ‘her’ stations which played soft rock) who had done them. She didn’t know.
And then “Fallen” came out and established the Evanescence as a sort of Gothic/Alternative Rock feel and the music world quickly took notice. How interesting, a hard rock band headed by a girl.
“Fallen” gave Amy Lee the chance to stretch her voice, and stretch it she did. From track to track she goes from determined, strong, almost bitter at times, to a softer, more chilling tone and back again.
But it’s not only the vocalist to be praised, the music as well pars with the lyrics at the right tone, and overall sets the mood of the song in the very beginning, even before Amy begins to sing.
No album is without its flaws of course. The very first song, “Going Under” is mediocre and shouldn’t give the listener their first impression of the band. “Hello” and “Tourniquet” feel sort of out-of-place as well, depending on the listener.
“My Immortal” and “Bring Me to Life” are two of the most notable songs on the album because they’re the songs that made the band popular, but lets take a look at some of the lesser known good songs:
“Everybody’s Fool” is a great example of the ‘fakeness’ in certain aspects of our current world. The lines “without the mask where will you hide/can't find yourself lost in your lie” make a statement about people who are too lost in trying to impress everyone else that they forget who they are.
“Haunted” is one of the spookiest songs on the album. It definitely has that stereotypical ‘gothic/emo I hate this world’ tone at first, but later on it become apparent that the true emotion being expressed is fear, and the reality of it. Though both the music and lyrics are strong, it has an underlying frightened child feel.
The emotion of fear is later re-addressed in “Whisper”, which despite the title is definitely one of the ‘rockier’ songs on the album, this time the theme has taken a darker turn and is paired with a feeling of loneliness. It seems an appropriate end song for the album, because this is the song Amy’s voice AND the instrumentals really build and come out. Like some sort of climax we’ve been waiting for the whole album.
So that’s a brief review of “Fallen” by Evanescence. It’s the bands first cd, and definitely the most notable one. And I still can’t figure out why they still play the songs on that soft rock station.
2 comments:
I would have to agree that there are some songs that are really out of place on the album, and that it is a little strange that Amy Lee heads the band...and also that they play it on a soft rock station. All of the above just make Evanescence that much more noticeable I guess.
I didn't particularly like this album, but it IS better than their second one, which honestly I would say just don't listen to it because it isn't worth your time, but you have some interesting takes on "Everybody's Fool" and I like how you interpreted that.
Good review.
I also found some of the songs on this album to be sort of out of place; most notably Tournaquet. Some of the songs on "Fallen" are really well done and emotionally performed, but Tournaquet kind of jumps out as "Oh, woe is me I only love my razor blade" emo poetry somebody slapped up on deviantart, you know? I was also interested in your interpretation of "Everybody's Fool." You see the song the way that I like to see it. A lot of people would interpret it in a more literal way as a sort of anti-religious song.
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