Comparing and Contrasting the Fallen and The Open Door albums Kristi Foskey
Mrs. Outlaw
American Literature
May 6, 2008

Comparing and Contrasting the Fallen and The Open Door albums

The similarities and differences in the Fallen and The Open Door albums are vast and numerous. They range from lyrical style, instrumental arrangement, song meanings, and even lineup of the members in the band. They also include fan opinion, professional opinion, and my own input. To decide which is better is hard to accomplish and is based entirely on point-of-view. But the fact is that both of these albums are both memorable and are worth your time and money.
Fallen
The Fallen album was recorded at Track Record Inc. & NRG Recording Studios and was released to the public on March 4, 2003. By the end of April of the same year it had been certified platinum, double platinum in June, and months later in November reached it’s highest peak at six times platinum. Over fifteen million albums have been sold worldwide by 2008. Fallen spent a total of fifty-eight weeks on the Billboard Top twenty and one hundred weeks on the top two hundred. (Wikipedia.org) Fallen has spawned four singles. The first single was “Bring Me to Life” which was released on April 22, 2003. Amy Lee, the lead singer of Evanescence and also the band’s song writer, said this song was written about and incident occurring at a restaurant: “I had spoken maybe 10 or 15 words to this guy, who was a friend of a friend. We were waiting for everyone else to show up, and we went into a restaurant and got a table. And he looked at me and said, ‘Are you happy?’ And I felt my heart leap, and I was like, he totally knows what I’m thinking. And I lied, I said I was fine. Anyway, he’s not really clairvoyant. But he is sociology major." (Amy Lee, The Boston Phoenix) In an interview titled "Amy Lee: Back In Black", she said she wrote "Bring Me to Life" about her long time friend Josh, to whom she is now married. (Blender, October 2006.) On September 9, 2003, the single “Going Under” was released. The video was simple with the major focus being on the band. The song is one of the heavier songs preformed and also one of the most cryptic. “The lyrics are about coming out of a bad relationship, and when you're at the end of your rope, when you're at the point where you realize something has to change, that you can't go on living in the situation that you're in. It's cool. It's a very strong song”. (Amy Lee, MTV News) “My Immortal” is the forth single released on December 8, 2003. The video for this one was shot in black-and-white in Barcelona, Spain. It was the seventh highest selling single in 2004. Several versions of the song exist: one demo version the band made from 1997-1998 Evanescence EP outtakes, which includes some different lyrics was entirely written and composed by Moody; one featured on the band's demo album, Origin where lead singer Amy Lee recomposed the song and changed the lyrics; the one featured on Fallen is similar to the one on Origin, except with added strings; their Mystary EP version is similar to the band version, minus the band; and "My Immortal (Band Version)", the radio version mentioned above in which the final phrase of the music is filled with heavy guitars and drums where it is filled with strings in the album version which was the version used in the music video. (Wikipdia.org)

The final single was “Everybody’s Fool”. It is about fake celebrities who strip and sell their bodies for publicity, though it could also be interpreted that the song is about celebrities who have completely false images. The video, directed by Philipp Stölzl, is a live action video that portrays the life of a glamorous superstar (played by Amy Lee) who is really unhappy with the way she portrays herself in the media. She sells Lies consumer products: perfume, pizza, energy drink, and a little doll.