I didn’t start out as a rock music fan. I grew up in a household wherein the older people (meaning my parents and grandparents) enjoyed listening to Sinatra and his contemporaries, while I had a little sister who loved (and still loves) pop and R&B. I, on the other hand, drowned them all out with my Fantasia cassette tape.
However, Evanescence’s Fallen album changed all of that. When I first heard Amy Lee’s divine vocals singing ’’Bring Me to Life’’ on the Daredevil OST, I was hooked. Many people have commented on Amy Lee’s voice and the music that accompanies that voice, but after listening to the album over and over again, I must say that it is the lyrics that will forever draw me to Evanescence and their works.
While Amy Lee’s vocals are heaven-sent, and the music and instrumentation are exquisite, they would not mean much if it were not for the lyrics of the songs. I could comment on all songs on the album, but I will not do so. While all these songs have extraordinary lyrics, I will only choose those that remain close to my heart.
Track Three, ’’Everybody’s Fool, ’’ is my favorite track on the album. Speaking from the point-of-view of the outsider, this is a rather angry song that seems directed ’’popular people’’ - the A-crowd, the Beautiful People, however one wishes to call them. However, the lyrics are a double-edged sword: the listener can believe for a while that the persona (the one ’’speaking’’ in the song) is on their side, but later on, one almost thinks that the persona is accusing the listener instead. For me, the most striking lines in the song are these:
Without the mask, where will you hide
Can’t find yourself lost in the lies
Indeed, what happens to us when we are stripped of our masks? What shall we do, where shall we go, in order to hide true selves from the world? What lengths shall we go to in order to do this?
Track Six, ’’Tourniquet, ’’ is another song that tackles a very sensitive topic: suicide. Sung from the victim’s point-of-view, it recollects those few moments before the end comes at last. The victim asks God: can I still be saved? This is perfectly put down in the following lyrics:
Do you remember me
Lost for so long
Will you be on the other side
Or will you forget me
The persona is crying out for salvation, and even then, said persona is not sure whether God will be there at the end of it all or not. This song earns extra praise for dealing with such a sensitive issue so elegantly.
’’Imaginary, ’’ Track Seven, is what I would call my ’’image song, ’’ meaning it describes my personality best. The persona in this one is a dreamer, who dreams because it is an escape from the harsh realities of the world. While most people would say that this is wrong, the persona gives a rather good reason - a reason that most people would give first, but don’t because they think it’s too flimsy:
Don’t say I’m out of touch
With this rampant chaos - your reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
The nightmare I built my own world to escape
And so it is for many dreamers, myself included: we build our own refuges in our minds, that we might be able to get away from the insanity of this world. People think we are crazy, but we ask who are crazier: you, who live in a chaotic world with no place of peace to go to, or us, who know what reality is and thus make our own sanctuaries in our minds that the chaos might not swallow us whole and kill our souls in the process?
There are many love songs for people who spend nights up thinking of the one they adore. Many of these songs are sentimental pieces with lyrics that are cliched and thus lose that sense of uniqueness. This is not the case with Track Eight, ’’Taking Over Me.’’ The song speaks of longing for the beloved, but unable to do anything about it except think about them. My favorite lyrics are these:
You don’t remember me but I remember you
I lie awake and try so hard not to think of you
But who can decide what they dream
And dream I do...
Indeed, there is always this feeling of lack of control that accompanies being in love. While we might feel like we would do everything in our power to get that love, do we really have to do so much? After all, there are times when the touch of a hand is enough to communicate what we feel...
The lyrics are the heart and soul of a song. My poetry professor recently taught us that for the lyrics of a song to be any good, they must be judged out of the context of the song itself - that is, lyrics must be read like good poetry to be of any good.
There is no denying it: the lyrics of Evacenscence’s songs read like very good poetry.