"It's the Opheliac in me..."
This is going to be different, but that's okay. I like different, and I haven't posted in a while anyway.
In my absence, I had been talking a great deal with rosen_schwert who is a big fan of an American artist named Emilie Autumn. She, meaning the Madame, had shared this love of Emilie with me a while ago, but when I tried to listen to some of her songs they just... didn't catch.
Emilie is a really intriguing woman, to say the least, as well as very talented. As far as I read, she plays the violin, the piano, and the harpsichord. I'm not particularly familiar with the harpsichord, but she plays it, so there. Obviously, she sings her own songs as well with her backing band, the Blood Crumpets. Emilie has a few terms coined regarding her sound, "punktorian" and "victoriandustrial", but I'm just going to call it alternative because that will make the most sense to you. She uses a lot of Victorian influences though, in her costumes and makeup, but much of her songs are inspired by a host of terrible life experiences- so yeah, most of her songs are... depressing in one form or another.
She even wrote a book called The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls which is meant to parallel her time in a psychiatric hospital, after attempting suicide, with a fictional "Emily" in a Victorian asylum. The idea is that not a whole lot has changed since that era compared to now, I believe. Madame shared some excerpts of the novel, and reading about it made me interested in it but also terrified to read it since I'm already wallowing in and out of depression (although I've had a good few weeks so far). The book is also expensive. One day I will probably be moved to read it.
Emilie's album Opheliac is supposed to be a good companion since the book talks about the same things her songs talk about, although likely in a much more obvious and chronological fashion. I've read almost all of the lyrics to the songs on their own, and have listened to only a few songs. I really like her melodies and her lyrics, I think the hardest part for me is the way she chooses to sing said lyrics over said melodies. I'm starting to get used to how she works though. One of the songs that I can actively recall to mind is "Gothic Lolita", which... this will require some knowledge of the novel, Lolita, which basically details a lunatic sex pervert (my terminology) who becomes sexually obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl named Dolores. You should only read that novel if you like reading about perverts describing little girls in some sort of lustful fashion, kidnapping, extortion and... despair. But thinking of that, you can already imagine where Emilie is getting with a song like that. The chorus (since that's all I can remember now) goes: "If I am Lolita, then you are a criminal, and you should be killed by an army of little girls. The law won't arrest you, the world won't detest you. You never did anything any man wouldn't do." D:
The other song that comes to mind now is "I Know Where You Sleep" which is an animalistic, evil-sounding song about her relationship with Billy Corgan (according to other people). It just amuses me, especially how fast she sings it. I guess it's also more commercial sounding (even though I just called it animalistic. Maybe tribal?) haha, to me it's easier on the ears than some of her other songs though.
The song I instantly fell in love with, anyway, is the title track, "Opheliac". I did some investigating into what the word means, and apparently people have found multiple ways to interpret it, although I'm not sure why. If any of you are familiar with Shakespeare's Hamlet, you have no doubt heard of Ophelia, who notoriously delves into... outright insanity. Someone (on Urban Dictionary, and in video below) suggested that it involved an unnatural obsession with a person, but I don't gather that at all. So the most reasonable definition is a person who delves/has delved into insanity, or else some sort of depression... and big surprise, Emilie is manic-depressive so.... I think I'm on the right track here.
The intro hooked me instantly (it's instrumental) and really draws out a feel for the era and the music that she does. I was almost turned off at the bridge when the Bloody Crumpets start... screaming over her but... I've gotten used to it. Makes sense still, going back to the definition of the word "Opheliac".
This is for you. I won't even pretend to think that some of you might actually like it, but I'm sharing it anyway because I like it, and it might amuse you at the very least.
Somehow I can never make these short. Oh well, now you know I'm ALIVE!
In my absence, I had been talking a great deal with rosen_schwert who is a big fan of an American artist named Emilie Autumn. She, meaning the Madame, had shared this love of Emilie with me a while ago, but when I tried to listen to some of her songs they just... didn't catch.
Emilie is a really intriguing woman, to say the least, as well as very talented. As far as I read, she plays the violin, the piano, and the harpsichord. I'm not particularly familiar with the harpsichord, but she plays it, so there. Obviously, she sings her own songs as well with her backing band, the Blood Crumpets. Emilie has a few terms coined regarding her sound, "punktorian" and "victoriandustrial", but I'm just going to call it alternative because that will make the most sense to you. She uses a lot of Victorian influences though, in her costumes and makeup, but much of her songs are inspired by a host of terrible life experiences- so yeah, most of her songs are... depressing in one form or another.
She even wrote a book called The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls which is meant to parallel her time in a psychiatric hospital, after attempting suicide, with a fictional "Emily" in a Victorian asylum. The idea is that not a whole lot has changed since that era compared to now, I believe. Madame shared some excerpts of the novel, and reading about it made me interested in it but also terrified to read it since I'm already wallowing in and out of depression (although I've had a good few weeks so far). The book is also expensive. One day I will probably be moved to read it.
Emilie's album Opheliac is supposed to be a good companion since the book talks about the same things her songs talk about, although likely in a much more obvious and chronological fashion. I've read almost all of the lyrics to the songs on their own, and have listened to only a few songs. I really like her melodies and her lyrics, I think the hardest part for me is the way she chooses to sing said lyrics over said melodies. I'm starting to get used to how she works though. One of the songs that I can actively recall to mind is "Gothic Lolita", which... this will require some knowledge of the novel, Lolita, which basically details a lunatic sex pervert (my terminology) who becomes sexually obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl named Dolores. You should only read that novel if you like reading about perverts describing little girls in some sort of lustful fashion, kidnapping, extortion and... despair. But thinking of that, you can already imagine where Emilie is getting with a song like that. The chorus (since that's all I can remember now) goes: "If I am Lolita, then you are a criminal, and you should be killed by an army of little girls. The law won't arrest you, the world won't detest you. You never did anything any man wouldn't do." D:
The other song that comes to mind now is "I Know Where You Sleep" which is an animalistic, evil-sounding song about her relationship with Billy Corgan (according to other people). It just amuses me, especially how fast she sings it. I guess it's also more commercial sounding (even though I just called it animalistic. Maybe tribal?) haha, to me it's easier on the ears than some of her other songs though.
The song I instantly fell in love with, anyway, is the title track, "Opheliac". I did some investigating into what the word means, and apparently people have found multiple ways to interpret it, although I'm not sure why. If any of you are familiar with Shakespeare's Hamlet, you have no doubt heard of Ophelia, who notoriously delves into... outright insanity. Someone (on Urban Dictionary, and in video below) suggested that it involved an unnatural obsession with a person, but I don't gather that at all. So the most reasonable definition is a person who delves/has delved into insanity, or else some sort of depression... and big surprise, Emilie is manic-depressive so.... I think I'm on the right track here.
The intro hooked me instantly (it's instrumental) and really draws out a feel for the era and the music that she does. I was almost turned off at the bridge when the Bloody Crumpets start... screaming over her but... I've gotten used to it. Makes sense still, going back to the definition of the word "Opheliac".
This is for you. I won't even pretend to think that some of you might actually like it, but I'm sharing it anyway because I like it, and it might amuse you at the very least.
Click to viewSomehow I can never make these short. Oh well, now you know I'm ALIVE!