The collection also includes Fallen (the band's commercial debut featuring hits such as "Bring Me to Life" and "My Immortal"), The Open Door (the second commercial album featuring songs like "Call Me When You're Sober" and "Lithium"), Evanescence (the 2011 album featuring singles such as "What You Want" and "My Heart Is Broken"), and Lost Whispers (a collection of b-sides, previously unreleased songs, and deluxe bonus tracks). My pIan here is to, as briefly as possible, review the included albums and the collection's packaging, as well as discuss my (dis)approval with what was included in the collection and what was not. I absolutely adore Origin; I always have. While I love, love, love music, I am not the audiophile that some people are (meaning that I don't have the ears to pick up on certain production techniques like other people have), so when I listen to Origin, I love it for its melodies, its vocals, its lyrics, etc., paying very little attention to the production quality, so the fact that the songs on Origin are demos recorded in Ben's apartment means very little to me. Origin is definitely Evanescence's darkest work (and probably least heaviest, relying more so on darkwave and electronic sounds then heavy guitar like later albums do), both in sound and lyrics. Origin deals with themes like death and suicide ("Where Will You Go" and "Even in Death"), wrestling with faith and existentialism ("Away from Me"), forbidden love ("Anywhere"), and loss of innocence ("Field of Innocence"). My favorite song on the album has always been "Where Will You Go," a powerful electronic anti-suicide anthem (at least according to the way that I personally interpret it) with hauntingly beautiful keyboard and organ accompaniment. It trumps the quieter and softer version found on their (mostly) unreleased self-titled EP (which can be downloaded here).
The next inclusion in the set is the 2003 commercial debut and smash hit Fallen. Despite the band's lack of expectancy to do so, Evanescence hit the jackpot with this commercial debut, eventually being certified 7x platinum and selling more than 17 million copies worldwide. The debut single "Bring Me to Life" was instantly a hit that, despite its dark and heavy sound, went to pop radio, probably due in part to its inclusion in the 2003 film Daredevil. Fallen marks the Evanescence era when most fans, myself included, first heard and fell in love with the band. Much heavier and more aggressive than Origin, highlights include "Everybody's Fool" (a song about betraying one's identity for the sake of recognition, reportedly about pop stars like Britney Spears), "Haunted" (a very dark and unsettling heavy track inspired by a short story that Ben Moody wrote, which can be read here), "Tourniquet" (adapted from a song titled "My Tourniquet" by Soul Embraced, a Christian metal band which shared member Rocky Gray with Evanescence), and "Whisper" (a song previously heard on Origin, now amped up with added layers such as a haunting choir and strings). Amy has previously described the overall story of the album as being one of entrapment in an abusive relationship, as evidenced by songs like "Going Under," "Haunted," and "Taking over Me." Three of Fallen's tracks are new versions of songs on Origin - "My Immortal," "Imaginary," and "Whisper." "Imaginary" and "Whisper" are considerably different, but "My Immortal" didn't change save for added strings. A few years after Fallen was released, new pressings of the album included the band version of "My Immortal" (which is the version featured in the music video and played on the radio) as a bonus track, but this is, for some reason, missing from this vinyl set. Considering that it's the version of the song that most people know, I don't really understand its exclusion from this set.
The Open Door, as previously mentioned, is Evanescence's commercial sophomore album, released in 2006. The debut single "Call Me When You're Sober" took the band in a new direction, sounding more upbeat and more pop-like than they ever had before (which later influenced the self-titled album's debut single "What You Want"). It does not, however, represent the album as a whole, as overall, The Open Door is much more atmospheric and subdued than Fallen. The album features themes of breaking away from abusive people and situations and being comfortable on your own. (Songs such as "Sweet Sacrifice," the aforementioned "Call Me When You're Sober," "Weight of the World," "Lose Control," etc. clearly demonstrate this.) The Open Door is the first Evanescence release following co-founder Ben Moody's departure from the band, a personal and professional relationship that reportedly ended on bad terms due to Amy's claim that Ben was domineering and abusive and also due to massive creative differences that led to disagreements over musical direction. The latter is evident, as The Open Door is a totally different album than Fallen. It definitely got treated with more production, and it is much more lush and experimental sounding. (A Mozart piece from his Requiem was even adapted into a melancholy but epic metal track with strings and choir.) The album is primarily focused on Seether frontman Shaun Morgan, with whom Amy had had a turbulent relationship which ended prior to the release of The Open Door. Songs like "Call Me When You're Sober," "Lithium," and "Lacrymosa" are all focused on him, and even though, like Fallen, the album focuses on themes of abuse, this album is about breaking away from it and being independent rather than feeling entrapped in it. It is a much stronger and more independent Amy Lee (hence the album's title which hints at new opportunities).
Featured next in The Ultimate Collection is the band's 2011 self-titled album Evanescence, which I actually already reviewed in-depth here shortly following its release. Some fans have referred to it as the heaviest Evanescence album to date because of alternative metal tracks like "Made of Stone," "The Other Side," and "Never Go Back." To a certain extent, I agree because "Never Go Back" for example features an extremely aggressive guitar riff. Overall, however, I would probably argue that Fallen is the band's heaviest album. Evanescence, however, is definitely the band's most socially and culturally conscious, inspired by topics and events such as sex trafficking ("My Heart Is Broken") and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit and devastated Japan ("Never Go Back"). The album also shows Amy at her most introspective, with reflective songs like the piano rock ballad "Lost in Paradise" and the lulling "Swimming Home." Not included on this vinyl are the four bonus tracks from the deluxe version of the album - "New Way to Bleed," "Say You Will," "Disappear," and "Secret Door." The catchy and piano-driven "Disappear" (which, to me, is thematically similar to "Bring Me to Life" except from the other person's perspective) and the dreamy (in more ways than one, as the song is about the safety and beauty that dreams can offer) "Secret Door" are absolutely essential, but they are featured as the final four tracks on the next installment of this collection, Lost Whispers. The album, as aforementioned, is a collection of b-sides and is cleverly named after a live intro from 2009, the studio version of which appears as the first track on this album. Perhaps what is most exciting about Lost Whispers is that it was released digitally, so a few songs that were previously only available physically like "Farther Away" and "The Last Song I'm Wasting on You" are now officially available digitally. The album also features a new recording, a re-recording of the Origin song "Even in Death" now treated with a much softer and more acoustic sound, and a previously unreleased (albeit leaked) song "If You Don't Mind," an outtake from The Open Door.
I previously mentioned that the best part of The Ultimate Collection is the fact that it includes Origin, finally giving Origin an official commercial release. The second best part is that it includes a hardcover vinyl-sized book featuring more than fifty pages of color photos and Amy's handwritten notes from her journals. Each era, even Origin, is represented here with photos, drawings of costumes, and so forth, and it's cool to read Amy's notes and handwritten lyrics because you can see some of the lyrics in initial stages, having changed a bit before making it onto the albums. The box in which the albums are placed features the Evanescence logo on the front, empty so that the album cover (or book cover) showing is interchangeable. The box also features stars that glow in the dark after being exposed to light. Fallen, The Open Door, and Evanescence obviously do not offer any new material to fans, but with the collection featuring Origin, Lost Whispers, and the hardcover book, it is, as I said, an absolute must-have for diehard Evanescence fans. The collection does have a few shortcomings, a couple of which I already mentioned. Firstly, as previously stated, although Origin has finally seen an official commercial release, it still is not officially available digitally or on CD. Secondly, as also mentioned already, the band version of "My Immortal" is missing from the collection, which doesn't make much sense because it means that a major smash hit of a single is technically missing. Lastly, I wish that the Lost Whispers collection hadn't wasted four tracks on deluxe tracks from the self-titled album that we had all already had digitally and/or physically. That was a missed opportunity to finally release highly anticipated songs that we haven't heard such as "Perfect Dream," "Your Love," "You Got a Lot to Learn," etc. Overall, however, The Ultimate Collection is a wonderful and special treat to the fans, one for which I am grateful.
(Check out my other Evanescence and Amy Lee posts here.)
