Origin: The Beginning of the End of Innocence
Written: Apr 27 '03 (Updated Oct 15 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Shows a more experimental side of the band, and early versions of a few tracks.
Cons: Production is flawed here and there, fewer all-out rocking songs.
The Bottom Line: Go download this. Now. You have the band's permission.
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| divad23's Full Review: Origin - Evanescence Movies |
Oh, how the mighty have Fallen.
It's amazing how we Christians can put certain artists on a pedestal, and then turn on them so quickly when they disappoint us. Take the Goth-inflected, female-led rock band Evanescence, for example. Their leading members claim to be Christians, and while they've always maintained that they didn't like the label "Christian band", but when their major label debut hit music stores earlier this year, they seemed to be courting the CCM market by allowing their label to distribute the album to Christian bookstores. Perhaps their personalities and dress code were a little "on the edge" compared to other popular artists who were Christians, but several members of the religious community found their music to be intriguing and even spiritually uplifting, and it didn't seem to me that too many non-Christians were immediately turned off by the obvious connotations of some of the songs (I read a few reviews that said they respected the band for stating what they believed even if those references lowered their interest in those particular songs). In other words, the band was reasonably successful at making music that mainstream music fans could respect and enjoy without completely hiding their faith.
That all changed earlier this month, thanks to a rather foul-mouthed interview with Entertainment Weekly Apparently a few f-words and misuses of their Lord's name got tossed around, and Wind-Up Records did a little damage control and voluntarily recalled the band's album from Christian bookstores. Naturally a lot of Christian fans felt betrayed, because now the band's two spokespeople were writing off their attempts to communicate a message of God's love through their music as "youthful indiscretions". Some took it to mean that the band had recanted their faith. Personally, I'm not one to write off a band just because they do some things that ruffle my feathers - I may disagree with their current stance, and it may frustrate me that some of their explanations of their songs now maintain that they were never meant to be informed by their faith, and listeners could get whatever they wanted out of the songs. My frustration with the band isn't that they don't follow my personal moral code - rather, I'm frustrated that they seem to have been inconsistent with earlier statements, as if fame had tempted them to "act cool" and prove they weren't like the rest of those stuffy, boring Christian bands. It's kind of an insult to fans on both sides of the fence - they had respect in the mainstream before this erratic behavior and it seems like they're assuming their non-Christian fans are all hardcore atheists who would turn their back at the first mention of God. I'd like to believe that people are more intelligent and open-minded than that, personally.
So why bring all this complicated stuff up when I'm writing a review of an independent album recorded by the band before the controversy happened? Because I'll admit I long for more innocent days, when the perceived pressure of fame wasn't causing the band to imagine that they needed to play pretend to maintain their fan base. Call me silly, but I believe that you can still enjoy a band and find deep meaning (spiritual or otherwise) in their music even if you don't agree with everything they do and say. A lot of my fellow Christians seem to have difficulty with that concept, believing that buying an album buy an artist who swears, or drinks, or lies, or voices a difference of opinion from a Republican President (God forbid!) somehow condones those actions. Silly, isn't it? Well, I'm hoping that at least one person can realize that's not true, that our favorite artists are going to make mistakes (perceived or real) over the years and we need to have a little grace.
Okay, off the soapbox and on to the album. "Released" in 2000, Origin was not meant to be a proper album, but more of a demo exposing the many talents of singer Amy Lee and Ben Moody. Backed up by some of the same instrumentalists who helped them out on Fallen, Origin is for the most part a mellower album. It's also more diverse, avoiding most of the cliché nu-metal sounds that were the only real minus on their big debut, and for the most part taking more of an ethereal approach (excepting a few songs designed to jolt you out of your sleep). The production is obviously thinner, and perhaps this is most noticeable on the songs that were later reworked for Fallen, but even the early versions show some promise, and there are a lot of lesser-known tracks that will likely leave fans salivating for a redo on future albums. It's a gem of a collection that I listen to as much if not more than Fallen.
Sound interesting? Want to run out and buy it? Well, you can't. (Neener neener.) The band has voiced their distaste with fans who are selling original or burned copies of the limited releases on Ebay for as much as $200. But never fear - the band would love it if you downloaded it and checked it out, because hey, no one's losing any money on it. Sound like a good deal? Then read on...
Origin
Oddly, the album's title track is just a thirty-second intro, a montage of tortured screams, heavy guitar chords, and what sounds like horror movie clips popping up here and there. Gradually a programmed beat takes over and then...
Whisper
Speaking to the atmosphere
No one's here and I fall into myself...
A familiar guitar intro takes over - interesting that the first song here was redone as the last song on Fallen. This version is pretty good, a little more scaled back than the "final" rendition and also a tad slower, but that allows for gurgling electronics to pop up underneath as we are introduced to Amy's lovely voice. Fittingly, the song works as both an introductory and a closing song, due to how it urges listeners "Don't close your eyes, God knows what lies behind them." A call for honesty before God in a world where we're all tempted to look like something we're not. (Or so goes my interpretation.) There are moments where the track lags - Amy leaves out the second "If I will it all away" which leads the verse into the chorus, and the choir (which offered an eerie Latin chant to close out the Fallen version is more subdued here, sounding like it's really just a bunch of Amy's singing from somewhere far away. The busy strings are also not present and the song is overall a bit shorter.
Imaginary
Though you may not remember dreaming
Something waits for you to breathe again...
One of the band's oldest songs shows up here (it's already on its third or so iteration at this point), and it's a lot mellower than it ended up being on Fallen. An online buddy passed these songs over to me a few weeks before Fallen came out, and this was one of the first tracks to get me hooked on the band, with its delicate piano and haunting chorus. It was the perfect song for escaping the hustle and bustle of everyday life and allowing oneself to depart to a spiritual plane where life was peaceful. Sounds like new age mumbo jumbo, I know, but it actually works well for people of any faith who believe that there is more out there than what meets the eye and that there is a God or some sort of spiritual being who longs to comfort us in difficult times. That is far more real than the tangible world we see in front of us. Anyway, the song seems to have been majorly rearranged, opening with a vocal line that was later moved to the song's bridge, and opting for an alternate chorus instead of a second verse. It doesn't come slamming in as hard as the Fallen version, but it's still quite tasty.
My Immortal
Your face, it haunts my once pleasant dreams
Your voice, it chased away all the sanity in me...
The last of the three songs that were later redone, this sad ballad about love lost (or perhaps a love that won't let go) is virtually the same as the final version, minus the strings. At first I felt the strings in the new version were a bit distracting from the simple piano/vocal structure, but I guess it made it more of a "soundtrack" song. Anyway, I don't believe a single lyric is different here, and the song is just as beautiful and heartbreaking. One of the standout tracks on both albums.
Where Will You Go?
I realize you're afraid
But you can't reject the whole world...
A watery piano intro is interrupted by whacked-out electronics, and then the guitars break in for a semi-rocking track. The band makes interesting use of the organ on this track, sometimes blending it with the electronics during the verses and sometimes letting it back up Amy's voice on its own. It's also one of the clearest instances of keyboard player David Hodges doing backup vocals for Amy, something that seems to have been diminished on Fallen (he exited the band around the time of its release). I think his voice makes a nice counterpoint to Amy's... it's not as captivating as hers but it also isn't irritating in any way. The band seems to have written this song to address a friend who is somehow hiding from the world and thinking that he can go it alone without the help of God or anyone else, and Amy does an amicable job of trying to reach this person and let them know they can't run forever. A few sections of the song transition awkwardly into one another and overall it needs some work, but it's still a good track.
Field of Innocence
Where has my heart gone
An uneven trade for the real world...
Mmmm... delicious. Evanescence put out some really good slow tracks back in the day. This one is made up of little more than a drum loop and a soothing acoustic guitar repeating a melancholy tune, as Amy sings about the loss of her childhood innocence. I think that's a theme all of us can relate to - wanting to go back but not being able to do so. The track remains slow and mellow for its duration, but I don't really mind because the acoustic guitar is so sharp and clear, and the whispered voices during the song's bridge add a hint of a childhood memory that Amy can't quite seem to put her finger on. This goes on for over five minutes... it's pure bittersweet bliss in much the same way as the song "Imaginary".
Even in Death
Moonlight on the soft brown earth
It leads me to where you lay...
More electronics start this song off... I like that the band was less afraid to have a little "industrial influence" in their early days, or whatever you want to call it. Over a bed of noise that sounds like circuits communicating with one another, Amy begins to sing, and it seems almost off key if you're paying attention to the sounds underneath, but all becomes stabilized during the chorus. This song is mostly brooding, swirling around and only unleashing its full power during the bridge when Ben finally lets out a crunchy guitar solo. Nothing ground-breaking, but at least there is a solo or two on this album rather than the constant power chords that dragged down a few of the songs on Fallen. This song seems to paraphrase the Song of Solomon as Amy gently sings, "Even in death our love goes on". This song seems to be a very personal affirmation of faith despite the inability of the rest of the world to see or understand this relationship that has captivated her. (Interestingly, I've heard Ben and Amy pull off a totally acoustic version of this one - not something most electronica-dependent bands could do effectively.)
Anywhere
I have dreamt of a place for you and I
No one knows who we are there...
Another gentle ballad shows up here... it seems much more like your plain pop/rock tune at the beginning, which is odd for Evanescence, but it's got a swaying melody in 3/4 and the lyrics do a wonderful job of transporting the listener out of Evanescence's sorrowful sci-fi realm and into a fantasy land where she longs to escape with a human lover. David offers a lovely duet vocal during the chorus - it's understated but still nice to hear the two harmonizing. This one is slowly becoming one of my favorite "solitude with a lover" songs - I can just picture riding off into the forest on a white horse with a loved one's arms around me. It's almost as compelling as Iona's "Murlough Bay" or The Corrs' "Runaway" - actually, it sounds like something The Corrs would come up with now that they've mostly abandoned their Celtic-influenced roots (except better).
Lies
Arms outstretched, awaiting me
An open embrace upon a bleeding tree...
This one's a bit of a shocker after the mostly mellow mood that the disc has set so far. Amy starts out singing a lovely sequence of "oh-oh-oh"s that I just can't seem to stay in key with when I sing along - that woman has amazing control! An electronic undercurrent kicks in, once again seeming a bit off-key when compared to Amy's vocals, and then a jarring segue leads into harder drums and guitars. Bruce Fitzhugh, from the extreme Christian metal band Living Sacrifice, provides the verses, which are spoken and rather difficult to hear underneath all of the voices. His tone gets more gruff as this segues into a delicious vocal bridge from Amy, and the band totally goes for the throat musically, serving as a strange counterpoint to her silky vocals, which make the lies that she seems to believe about herself sound very seductive, how she will never bee good enough or strong enough, etc. It's an experiment to be sure, perhaps even a predecessor to their smash hit "Bring Me to Life", but the effect of Bruce's rapping/screaming sections isn't as much of a nu-metal cliché as Paul McCoy's appearance was on BMTL. I still think BMTL is a better song, but this one was definitely more of a daring move on the band's part.
Away from Me
I've woken now to find myself
In the shadows of all I have created...
This is the last "normal" track on the album before Evanescence veers off into more daring territory. Once again, the formula of seemingly incongruent electronics and vocals starts the song off, coming together on the chorus. The song overall is very techno-influenced with a strong backbeat and a very busy chorus. It's got a great hook to it, and I think it definitely deserves a remake some day. The song is about wanting to be taken away from all of the damage you've done to yourself, a process of realizing that life is better off with God in charge. This theme of damaging oneself and then crying out for salvation is revisited more poignantly in the newer song "Tourniquet", but this one still does an adequate job. I love the clever crossfade between this song and the next.
Eternal
Without missing a beat, the band launches into a tasty techno instrumental with joyous abandon. There's nary a word to be found here, but Ben and Amy show a lot of talent here, as electronic sounds bubble up in between razor-sharp guitars and Amy get lost in a piano recital that reminds me of Michael W. Smith pounding away in the middle of one of his edgier songs... except darker, of course. Just when you think it's done and the song fades away into the sound of gentle rain, a sharp bolt of lightning jolts you out of your trance and the rain becomes intermingled with a gentle piano solo. The effect is very similar to the middle section of Iona's "Songs of Ascent" trilogy, of all things. It's a pleasant little bonus, and a soothing way to end the album.
Listen to the Rain
Open your eyes to the world around you
You may feel you're alone, but I'm here still with you...
This song was cut from the final release of the album, but I was still able to get my hands on it, and it's kind of sad that the band left it off, because once again, it shows off the band's diverse tastes. Amy has confessed numerous times to being a "choir nerd", and while the soothing sounds of a choir appear on many of these tracks, the effect has never been more stunning than it is here. A gentle piano cues the choir in as they begin to whisper "Listen, listen" over and over, and eventually begin to sing a soft, soothing ode the rain falling around them. It feels like I'm back in college, listening to our Glee Club perform, or perhaps watching a musical production, and though I was never really into that stuff, the choir manages to be somber and not get into too much of the "perkiness" that I can't stand in musicals. I can't tell whether Amy is in the choir or whether she just arranged it, but either way, it's an excellent piece of work, and worth tracking down for all of you die-hard fans who would like to hear another side of the band's personality.
When the mp3's for this album were passed along to me, I was also given a short reprise of the song "Where Will You Go?" that I believe went in between "Anywhere" and "Lies" but was eventually cut (it's basically David and Amy repeating the "yeah, yeah"s from the end of the song, which I guess was a bit cheesy), as well as a short instrumental track called "Demise" which is actually the third movement of "Eternal", the ending the eventually decided to go with instead of "Listen to the Rain". It's basically the guitar pattern from "Field of Innocence" slowed down, played over more of a mournful beat. I'm guessing the band cut one of these reprises out because they felt that no value was being added to the disc by including it, but I kind of like it when pieces of one track crop up again in another.
So there you have it - a peek at Evanescence's "underground" days. As I mentioned above, listening to Origin is especially interesting when juxtaposed with the apparent attitude the band has been displaying these days - I don't harp on this to judge Evanescence or its members, but rather to say that I think they're better off just being themselves. Perhaps I'm just hanging on to a past that the band can't go back to, but then again, I would certainly understand if they're just going through a difficult period spiritually at the moment and don't understand that there isn't a mob of people looking to persecute them for being honest about their beliefs. A number of fans related to the songs on Fallen in very different ways, and I'm glad to just let that be as it is without shoving my interpretations of any of those songs down someone else's throat. And maybe they've just grown tired of explaining themselves in world where there are people in the media who love to look for instances of Christians messing up in front of their mainstream audience, so who knows? I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt, and I feel that nothing they do can change the enjoyment and meaning I get out of the songs they've recorded so far.
And there I am getting on my soapbox again. Some days you have to just stop worrying about your credibility and just say what you feel. I hope that I've made Origin sound like an intriguing listen even if you happen to disagree with my beliefs about the band. After all, those beliefs haven't stopped me from giving the band's music a hearty recommendation.
ALBUM WORTH:
Origin $0
Whisper $1.50
Imaginary $1.50
My Immortal $2
Where Will You Go? $1
Field of Innocence $2
Even in Death $1.50
Anywhere $2
Lies $2
Away from Me $2
Eternal $2
TOTAL: $17.50
Band Members:
Amy Lee: Vocals, choir arrangements
Ben Moody: Guitars, tribal percussion and programming
David Hodges: Piano, keyboards, background vocals (no longer with the band)
Rocky Gray: Drums
Website: http://www.evanescence.com
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
divad23
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Member: David Martin
Location: Pasadena, CA
Reviews written: 568
Trusted by: 262 members
About Me:
Just add an implicit "in my humble opinion" to every sentence I write.
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