Evanescence's Great Comeback Album

By James Hill III

By the time a band has released their third album, a fan base and style have already been established, and fans have had a chance to grow and evolve with the band. At the time when Evanescence released their first major-label album in 2003, "Fallen," most Santa Clara students were somewhere between elementary and middle school.

On Oct. 11, eight years after "Fallen" and three years since their last album, "The Open Door," they released their third, self-titled album.

Sophomore Kelly Doudell's first concert was Evanescence back in 2006; however, she said that with such a long time between albums and uncertainty over their status she was "on the verge of not wanting to listen to them again."

The debut single "What You Want" certainly doesn't disappoint. It was first performed live on MTV after the network realized that the band's fanbase was still very excited for new material.

It is arguably the catchiest song Evanescence has released since "Bring Me to Life," and its limited chart success is more a testament to the general public's current tastes than a statement on the song's quality. Strong drums open before stepping aside in favor of Lee's dynamic voice, which is joined by the new album's heavier guitar work for a fine chorus and bridge that serves as the song's highlight.

"My Heart Is Broken" runs through many of the band's traditional themes while showing off the entire band's instrumentation. "Made of Stone" and "The Change," seem very single worthy, sporting guitar solos and new grooves, but not straying too far from their already successful formula.

Evanescence is a high quality album in the older sense of the word; I'm not sure if any of the songs are specific, radio-friendly hit single types, but there isn't a single "filler" track on the album. Along with the traditional emotions and themes — freedom, love, loss, brokenness and recovery ­— water ties together a great deal of the album and provides unity. The songs work well together as a single, hour-long entity instead of the modern, iTunes-driven collection of four minute bursts, including the four songs on the deluxe edition, which I enjoyed as much as the standard twelve.

However, "Erase This" and "Sick" are among the heaviest, most rock-oriented songs on the album, "Lost in Paradise" distinctly calls back to the building style of "My Immortal," and the closing three, "Oceans," "Never Go Back" and "Swimming Home" ("Never Go Back" is inspired by the tsunami and earthquake in Japan) are an excellent way to finish the album.

Amy's piano playing is present on the entire album as a calming influence. The finale "Swimming Home" showcases her newly-learned harp play and the trip-hop/electro styles that colored some of her now-scrapped solo album work while providing quite the interesting way to end the album. Junior Juan Miguel Baluyut said that he "thoroughly enjoyed" the album, adding "it was a flashback of the music I enjoyed in my younger years. The album is a statement of how Evanescence still has it after five years of inactivity." After listening to the new work, Doudell said, "(Lee's) voice is so exquisite and unique that it is impossible not to appreciate" and that she enjoys "how authentic and soulful their music truly is."

The album as a whole was finally what it took to both establish their previous greatness and set the band on their road for the future. When it comes to individual songs that will get hundreds of plays on your iPod or get remembered as a "Song of the Year," this third album isn't quite as strong as either of their previous two. In the end, when it comes to the simple question of quality as an album-centered band, Evanescence may very well be better than ever.

Contact James Hill III at jhill@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.