Evanescence Reviewed

"The Open Door"
Wind-up Records
2006

We panned the original "Evanescence" album as a Christian conspiracy to hook Goth kids. This album we like much more.

"The Open Door" has a couple religious references and a couple possible Goth references, but mostly it's just romance culture.

This reviewer is not entirely sure whether she is being hooked by romance culture or whether there is really something interesting going on in this album. By herself, Amy Lee would probably be another drifting religious or folk singer, probably self-absorbed. Together with the "Evanescence" guitarist, Amy Lee is something else.

If we fantasize about two people as male and female working together in a band, it seems that the guitar somehow stands alone most of the time. Amy Lee sometimes responds directly as a singer to the guitar music and rhythm, but somehow the band really works even when she seems to be singing separately within a structure. So the album sustains interest and again raises the question of why such combinations are not more common in rock.

It would be an interesting discussion whether there is such a thing as male and female principles that can translate into musical form. Perhaps the reviewer has been hooked on some aspect of romance culture lyrics or maybe there is really something else intriguing going on here. In defense of myself only a few lyrics are intelligible. They can mostly qualify as sweet nothings murmured and not understood.

The reviewer listens to this album over and over. She fantasizes that the reason is that the female principle in music is listless and unfocussed while the male principle of pop music can be briefly impressive but seems to come to a definite end. Maybe this album deserves sustained interest or maybe this reviewer has been conned by the patriarchy one more time. Go To Amazon.com to Buy This CD

See also our MIM Theory on gender issues