The Door Opened a little early for me
The latest Evanescence album, The Open Door, has fallen through a crack in time. It has installed itself onto my hard drive and started playing itself all on it's own. Because I am compelled to stay in my room and leave the speakers turned on, I've had the terrible misfortune of hearing this yet unreleased album. To make the most of this calamity, I'm going to give a brief review of it in general terms.
The general fan reaction to "Call Me When You're Sober", the first single from the album, was tinged with disappointment. The song appealed to lame pop radio nonsensibilities and didn't sound much like classic Evanescence style which can be heard on the early album Origin.
I am happy to say that the general quality of The Open Door is both somewhat decent and also not completely radio friendly. It has some of the peculiarities of Origin, much of the polish of Fallen, and all the vocal power one would expect. While levels of creativity and unpolishedness are not nearly as high as those from the demo CDs and EPs, there's still a quality to the album which can only be described as Evanescence-like.
One thing that could be complained about would be the similarity of the songs to each other. There's not an overabundance of variety. Another item is that it's not terribly easy to tell what she's saying on most of the songs. Of course, seeing as it's not a broadway musical, maybe it's not a crime that not every word is over-pronounced. Additionally, there is a general lack of poetry in several of the songs. Ben Moody's absence is noticed.
Highlights of the album include: Sweet Sacrifice, for it's vocal clarity so reminiscent of Origin. Lithium, for it's less-heavy-but-still-great goodness. Cloud Nine, for it's pure Evanescence power. Lacrymosa is a song highly reminiscent of Anything For You, one of my favorites from early Evanescence history. Your Star has a groovy organ, groovy beats, groovy guitar rockness, and groovy choirs. All That I'm Living For will probably see some airtime on the radio. Good Enough has an instrumental introduction which captures the attention, then continues on to become the lightest song on the album. Some of the multiple notes per syllable are a little awkward, but the song is good enough to make it onto my highlights list.
All in all, the album doesn't push the envelope so far that it sets new standards in music. It does okay. It may succeed well enough to satisfy Evanescence fans, but a failure to attract many new fans would not be unexpected.
The album is due out in late September of this year. Pre-ordering can be done via Amazon or iTunes.
(Paraposted on Xanga.)
The general fan reaction to "Call Me When You're Sober", the first single from the album, was tinged with disappointment. The song appealed to lame pop radio nonsensibilities and didn't sound much like classic Evanescence style which can be heard on the early album Origin.
I am happy to say that the general quality of The Open Door is both somewhat decent and also not completely radio friendly. It has some of the peculiarities of Origin, much of the polish of Fallen, and all the vocal power one would expect. While levels of creativity and unpolishedness are not nearly as high as those from the demo CDs and EPs, there's still a quality to the album which can only be described as Evanescence-like.
One thing that could be complained about would be the similarity of the songs to each other. There's not an overabundance of variety. Another item is that it's not terribly easy to tell what she's saying on most of the songs. Of course, seeing as it's not a broadway musical, maybe it's not a crime that not every word is over-pronounced. Additionally, there is a general lack of poetry in several of the songs. Ben Moody's absence is noticed.
Highlights of the album include: Sweet Sacrifice, for it's vocal clarity so reminiscent of Origin. Lithium, for it's less-heavy-but-still-great goodness. Cloud Nine, for it's pure Evanescence power. Lacrymosa is a song highly reminiscent of Anything For You, one of my favorites from early Evanescence history. Your Star has a groovy organ, groovy beats, groovy guitar rockness, and groovy choirs. All That I'm Living For will probably see some airtime on the radio. Good Enough has an instrumental introduction which captures the attention, then continues on to become the lightest song on the album. Some of the multiple notes per syllable are a little awkward, but the song is good enough to make it onto my highlights list.
All in all, the album doesn't push the envelope so far that it sets new standards in music. It does okay. It may succeed well enough to satisfy Evanescence fans, but a failure to attract many new fans would not be unexpected.
The album is due out in late September of this year. Pre-ordering can be done via Amazon or iTunes.
(Paraposted on Xanga.)
posted by Jonathan at 3:10 PM
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