When I was younger, I was lucky (unlucky?) enough to have this as one of the first albums I bought myself. It cost me about seven of my hard earned Scottish pounds, the other five pounds my mum gave me. However, soon after buying it, it got scratched, badly. (If you really want to know how badly, think dog + 4 year old + beach + lost CD wallet =) Now for some that would maybe be an omen as to say “leave this, it sucks, do not buy it again.” But I just thought, “oh well, my luck’s ####, let’s get it again.” That was 3 years ago; I loved it then, let’s see if
Fallen has aged well…
It clocks in at 11 tracks, and a total time of 48 minutes which gives each track an “average” length of four and a half minutes. Not a bad length, long enough to pull of some really cool things, but short enough to keep the listener happy. Long enough to generate some real gems but short enough to keep the listener from skipping to the next track. Now, that is an amazing little bit of middle ground to be in…unless you’re Amy Lee and co.
The parts they excel in make you’re mouth drop. This is quite an accessible album, with all the criteria necessary to make it big in the larger part of the market; a good, equal mix of fast, loud songs, and slow, quiet songs. It all sounds rather dandy, doesn’t it? Then you start to listen to it again…and again, and that amazing CD is like that girl you like, Blonde, nice face, but underneath the angelic exterior, she’s a total cow. Well, that’s the lesson you learn with this album. First impressions are sometimes, so incredibly wrong.
Where it’s problems lie are in the slower songs. The louder, faster songs have enough to keep the person listening. Catchy guitar riffs, above average drums and Amy’s voice, which can vary from quiet and haunting to what I can only describe as rather cynical in tone; she also has a powerful voice which many lead vocalists would be proud of.
So far, it all sounds rather promising.
Going Under has started things off with it’s haunting vocal delivery and basic but effective guitar riff, and
Everybody’s Fool has kept that up. But it’s after that, things begin to slowly, but surely make their way downhill. The band begin to slow down, and while this only helps Amy Lee’s vocal delivery be used to it’s fullest, the rest of the band don’t have a great deal else to do. Songs like
My Immortal drags the album down somewhat and the band’s seeming unwillingness to go back to the heavier side which they could do so well with disappoints
However, and I’m aware I’m contradicting myself here, but the best song on the album is one of the slower ones.
Imaginary manages to balance its two roles absolutely perfectly. Its verses consist of a piano against a minimalist drumbeat. However, instead of remaining quiet for the whole song, the chorus becomes all out chaos. And to add to this, the third verse consists of strings, a piano and Amy Lee; leading a rather short, yet chaotic solo consisting of guitar against a background of choir singers
The unfortunate thing about this album is that you can see what they’ve tried to achieve, and all credit to them, but they got it half right. The faster, heavier songs are really well thought out and really catchy, so in most respects, with that they hit two birds with one stone. But all of that hard work is decimated by the rather thoughtless and frankly, dull slower songs. I like this in regards to the heavier tracks, and
Imaginary , but when push comes to shove, you’re paying ten to fifteen pounds for an album which has 4 good tracks, 3 of which you’ve probably already heard. So, despite the evident effort, they need to either, tighten up and do something with their slower songs. Or when the next album comes out, make sure they’ve capitalised on their heavier tracks, because you can’t rely on Amy to carry them time, after time, after time.
Rating: 2/5
+Pros
Amy Lee’s voice
The heavier and faster songs
Imaginary
-Cons
Slower songs
Constant reliance on Amy to carry song
Not a lot of replay value
