Emilie Autumn Opheliac The Deluxe Edition
by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer
This double-disc deluxe edition of Emilie Autumn’s third full-length album is generously augmented by a bonus disc and some video extras making it a genuine treat for fans and newcomers to this confounding act alike. For those who are still unfamiliar with this Chicago-based singer, songwriter, poet and multi-instrumentalist, Opheliac is a good album to start with. After all, this was Autumn’s first record to enjoy widespread distribution and the first one to bring her international recognition.
Autumn’s trademark musical kaleidoscope starts spinning with a harpsichord intro on the title track opener, creating pseudo-classical vibe which is later picked up and expanded on by a poignant violin riff. Surprisingly, the method works, floating her smoky voice over a haunting spare string section with transparent elegance. To add some further pizzazz, Autumn’s voice is alternately sweetly pitch-perfect and ruggedly punky, mirroring perfectly the conflict between chaos and order that’s at the centre of her act.
While Autumn’s genre defies categorisation, embracing everything from pop and electronica to industrial metal and chanson, the album shows that for her this tension between the crafted and the controlled and the chaotic and unconscious is an endlessly fascinating theme she is prepared to explore no matter which sonic or emotional extremes it may lead her into. And she does so with such voracious zeal throughout, romping across pitch-perfect potential pop chart-toppers such as “Swallow” through to “Liar” where she succumbs to half-conscious hysterical chanting, that in the end all you want is for this record to continue playing to see what else she holds up her sleeve.
Autumn, of course, remains a pro no matter how far she goes and no matter which genre she engages in. This, as well as being able to keep focus on her main goal, holds this record and her act together, apart from her obvious talent. After all, under all of her grotesque buffoonery and a desire to shock hides a shrewd knack for writing a perfect pop song and vocal chops that can carry through and deliver any message she chooses – from deliberately neurotic to artfully vacuous.
Label: The End Records
Disc 1:
01. Opheliac
02. Swallow
03. Liar
04. The Art Of Suicide
05. I Want My Innocence Back
06. Misery Loves Company
07. God Help Me
08. Shalott
09. Gothic Lolita
10. Dead Is The New Alive
11. I Know Where You Sleep
12. Let The Record Show
13. Album Out Takes*
Video Extra:
A Day Out With EA*
Bonus Disc:
01. Thank God I’m Pretty
02. Dominant
03. 306
04. Gloomy Sunday*
05. Asleep (Acoustic Version, originally by The Smiths)*
06. Mad Girl (Acoustic Version)*
07. The Art Of Suicide (Acoustic Version)*
08. Thank God I’m Pretty (Shoegaze Version)*
09. Largo for Violin by J.S. Bach
10. Marry Me
11. Asylum Book Excerpt
12. Interview with EA
13. Poem: How To Break A Heart
14. Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches
Video Extra:
Live in Concert/Asylum Book Reading Footage*
Hardrock Haven rating: 7/10