Emilie Autumn
Fight Like A Girl

Review by Psychopathia

There were rumors for a long time about a new Emilie Autumn album. They said it would be called Fight like a girl.
Fascinated by a review I read on DeBaser, I had purchased Opheliac, attracted also by the sympathy Emilie evoked in me (borderline bipolar, like me—my nickname is a nomen omen, yes). So the wait for FLAG dragged on spasmodically until July 24th, when Emile Autumn put it up for sale on her site. As a good compulsive buyer, I grabbed it three minutes after it went on sale (7 am in Italy) and spent a fortune on the courier. It arrived on August 5th...

So?

FLAG is neither more nor less than what I expected: namely, a Pop work, from the relative frivolity of the title track to the amusement of One foot in front of the other, passing through chilling songs like Scavenger

Little Emilie is not a genius, but she knows how to do her job as an entertainer well, like a good artisan. Along with the Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer, one of the most valid exponents of non-trivial popular music with something to express.

On the other hand, dark-goths should keep their distance, as Emile has very little to do with them, as her music is joyful and bright

RATING: ****/*****

Review by cptgaio

This Emilie Autumn record took a long time to arrive: so much so that I thought the goddess of “Opheliac” would never again gift the world with something as powerful, dichotomous, and theatrical.

Instead, after a fairly troubled period from a personal perspective, she came out with “Fight like a Girl” which, both stylistically, with the confirmation of that self-imposed definition (“Victoriaindustrial” or “the Art of seducing or being completely repulsive by engaging in the Music world”), and technically-musically (the deliberate and flaunted ambiguity of proposing both often brazen electronics and sudden acoustic returns, all suspended in an atmosphere teetering between cabaret and grand guignol) presents nothing new. This is probably what the fans wanted, but by the third (fifth?) album perhaps one could have expected many more “Pop” concessions (in my view, the true test of maturity) from an artist who risks getting stuck in a sort of freak bubble (a risk shared by others in the same risky genre: let's be clear).

Nevertheless, there are real brutal gems in this record: from the macabre march of “If I Burn” to the post-industrial one of “Take the Pill,” not forgetting the title track (perhaps the only truly “Pop” thing on the record).  As long as she remains credible in her angry “diversity”, we cannot know, for now, we can only contemplate.

Rating: ***/*****