Evanescence - My Immortal

The year was 2003 and one of the few popular new band that I liked was Evanescence. They had just released their debut album “Fallen” and their first single “Bring Me to Life” was a pretty big hit at the time. I liked front woman Amy Lee, she had an strong voice for rock and roll and she presented herself really well in interviews where she came across as intelligent and creative. I would have probably have barely noticed Evanescence or remembered “Fallen” as so well as I do now, if it had not been for the strength of their second hit song “My Immortal.”

I would have to go and check to make sure, but “My Immortal” was most likely my favorite song for the entirety of that year. While “Bring Me to Life” brought the rock and roll energy we all crave and need, “My Immortal” was deeply emotional and invoked very powerful images and ideas of fantastic story telling about literal immortals. “My Immortal” is a song I go back and listen to all the time, I must have listened to the album “Fallen” a half dozen times, but “My Immortal” thousands of times I have taken the audio from that track into my waiting ears.

As a side note, I do really like the song “Imaginary,” also on the album “Fallen.”

A few years later, in 2006, Evanescence released their second album “The Open Door,” and the big hit from that album was “Call Me When You’re Sober.” I vaguely remember enjoying the second Evanescene album, but I do not own a copy of it, and it did not connect to me anywhere nearly as much as the first album, and I remember not being very taken with “Call Me When You’re Sober.” This song was inspired by Amy Lee’s ex-boyfriend who was contributed to the end of their relationship with his alcoholism. The ex-boyfriend in question was Shaun Morgan, the lead guitarist of Seether, they were pretty popular back then. I can certainly appreciate an artist’s desire to write about what they know, and in turn, what they are experiencing in their personal life, and I additionally respect that such an event in an artists life can be a powerful source of inspiration, however “Call Me When You’re Sober” felt a little like dirty laundry, not a big deal really, but not exactly my cup of tea. Maybe it was because of this that I never fell in love with the second Evanescence album; I know I have listened to it a few times, but I do not remember it all that well.

After that I kind of forgot about Evanescence. I did not even know they released a third album in 2011, this time it was their self title album. I should probably give it a listen sometime. The only thing that remained a strong presence in my playlists and memory was “My Immortal.”

Let it be known that I am rather fond of violinist Lindsey Stirling: http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2016/08/lindsey-Stirling-shadows.html

Lindsey Stirling has done many covers on her youtube channel, and my favorite among them is surely “My Immortal.”

Lindsey Stirling Cover:

This cover stood out to me as unique. Most of Lindsey’s covers are classical or pop music, this is a rock ballad, not entirely a dramatic departure from habit, but notable to me due to my fondness of the original.

I am not sure if I am the target audience for Evanescence or not, surely my individual listening ranks rather low in overall importance, but Evanescence has done something that reminded me of them in a big way, they teamed up with Lindsey Stirling, and recorded a new studio version of “My Immortal.”

Synthesis Version:

Instant love.

Before I even clicked on the video to watch it, I knew I was going to enjoy it. It is sort of meta in a way, someone covers your song, so you team up with them to cover the song together. I can only think of one other time that has happened, Helloween and Hellsongs, I will write a blog post about that eventually.

This new album by Evanescence “Synthesis” is almost entirely remastered songs from their three previous albums. The aim for the album of “Synthesis” is to incorporate an orchestral arrangement and electronica styles into Evanescence’s rock and roll songs. To this end it seems logical to bring in a popular violinist, who is familiar and supportive of Evanescence’s body of work, hence the recruitment of Linsey Stirling.

There are a handful of original songs on “Synthesis” and among them is “Hi-Lo” which also features Lindsey Stirling and not just a guest musician, she cocreator on this track.

Hi-Lo:

Given the relationship that must have grown from their collaborative effort, it is not to surprising Evanescence and Lindsey Stirling are now our tour together. There are no dates for Western Canada, but the tour’s end happens in Washington state in September so if additional shows are booked it could make sense to add Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton in October. One can hope, because I think it would be very interesting to see this show live. I would very much like to hear the songs from “Fallen” that I remember and enjoy so well rearranged in new ways, and also, take in the music I had forgotten from “The Open Door” and the songs I never noticed from the self titled album. Plus, Lindsey Stirling, that would be fun.

I will have to get a copy of “Synthesis” soon, if for no other reason then just for “My Immortal,” also I am curious if Stirling appears on any of the other tracks.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

We Are All Astronauts - Doves

I listen to a lot of music at work, and I let myself go down a lot of rabbit holes, and among the most interesting is elaborate guitar music and other heavily ambient music. Furthermore, I listen to a lot of God is An Astronaut, that Irish guitar band I talked about back in August of 2013:

God is an Astronaut – All is Violent, All is Bright: http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2013/08/god-is-astronaut-all-is-violent-all-is.html

So, it makes sense that youtube, which I am pretty much addicted to now, would sooner or later recommend music by We Are All Astronauts, given the similar band name and further similarities in mood and atmosphere. The song “Ether” comes up on the auto-play, and the name of the band intrigues me, I think it must be an offshoot of God is An Astronaut, so I let it ride and I listen. Whilst listening, I have the reaction of “what is this?” It is a good song, seven and a half minutes in length, and very absorbing and relaxing. Good stuff. I add to a playlist, so I remember it.

The next day a few more songs come up in the auto-play, they are fine, nothing stands out until “Doves” comes up. Early on in the song a voice speaks:

“In all our searching, the only thing we found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”

So naturally, my response is “what is this?”

“Doves” is a beautiful ambient song rich with layered sound and calming noise. Maybe I am a stickler for words, because almost all of my charism comes from my command of the English language, maybe as a moderate singer it is the only thing I can replicate from my favorite songs with any sort of success, but I like words, I often gravitate towards rich lyrics. The point is, a reason I got hung up on “Doves” more so than other We Are All Astronaut’s songs is the passing presence of the afore mentioned line and then later this fuller follow up:

“You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone. In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”

I had my suspicions this was from a movie, and I quickly confirmed that I was correct, this is from “Contact.”

“Contact” was written by the great Carl Sagan, and I have read a few of his books, but I never read “Contact” which I believe is his only work of fiction, nor have I ever seen the movie starting Jodi Foster, hence why I failed to identify it right away.

Long time readers of this blog may remember my fondness of yet another guitar band, this time out of England, called Maybeshewill, and one of my most popular posts ever was me explaining all the movie references (quotes) from their music, back in March of 2013: http://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.ca/2013/03/maybeshewill-movie-quotes.html

I found it very charming how Maybeshewill incorporated movie quotes into their music in the place of lyrics, and We Are All Astronauts has accomplished the same sort of appeal in their song “Doves.”

An important discovery for learning more about We Are All Astronauts is their soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/weareallastronauts

They have a lot of music on soundcloud, a lot that is absent from youtube, I think. I have been going through the playlists and I have only begun to scratch the surface, I am kind of stuck on the “Blue Dot Series” which are over an hour long each. Given the earlier connection to Carl Sagan I was quick to identify the “Blue Dot Series” as a tribute to Mr. Sagan and his book “The Pale Blue Dot,” which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed.

I noticed a lot of music from artist I enjoyed mixed in the “Blue Dot Series,” like M83, Gotye and Bon Iver and I also discovered some new stuff I like, but mostly I enjoyed the inclusion of quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sam Harris and of course, Carl Sagan.

The logical next move was to look up this band called We Are All Astronauts. No Wikipedia page, that’s unfortunate, because that is usually a good source of general information like, who are these people and where are they from, Wikipedia may not be perfect, but it is very reliable for that. They are very active on their facebook page, but all the about section says is: “We Are All Astronauts are an ambient, chillwave and progressive duo. Music makes the world go round.” So, there is two of them, I have no idea who they are, but I like what they are doing.

One thing I was unable to confirm was whether of not We Are All Astronauts have any connection to God is an Astronaut. I suspect the answer is no, and the similar names are just a coincidence, but it was a coincidence that doubtlessly helped me discover them, and so far that is working out pretty good.

“Doves” is the commanding favorite track of mine in their playlist so far, so I would recommend starting there, and check out the “Blue Dot Series” if you want six hours of chill background music to listen to.

- King of Braves