Emilie Autumn
Opheliac

THE REVIEW

Victoriaindustrial, or the Art of seducing or utterly repulsing through the world of Music, this is how Emilie Autumn, American singer and violinist, defines her Art.

And indeed it is so, the sweet or violent Emilie (on whom there is also this excellent review of Laced/Unlaced on DeB where you can find a bit of biography) makes no compromises and doesn’t expect them from her listeners either: "Love me or hate me" she seems to say, "Treat me like a Goddess" or "Throw me away". An unconventional Sensuality that finds expression in her Electric Violin and in her voice always suspended between two fires: that of the most intimate whisper and that of screamed despair, a dichotomy also found in the stylistic choice caught between tradition and electronics (namely the fusion of Victorian and Industrial...) and with the accompaniment of a lot, a lot, a lot of Theater.

In short, if you're looking for an Icon of Theatrical Representation of all the contrasts of our "poor" generation at the beginning of this Century, Emilie is for you. But if you can't stand the artifices of an artist who tries with all her might to place herself beyond mere musical execution, feel free to move on. I am among those who believe that Pop, despite the name, (and here it is present in massive doses, of course, but Pop... capitalized not by chance...) is not for everyone, so I will surely not take offense (and certainly not the fascinating Emilie).

But I don't want to lose myself in further chatter, the Thirty Lines I'm entitled to are tight so the album: the seductive Minuet of the Title-Track's intro introduces you to the Enchanted and horrifying World of "Opheliac", and it immediately becomes clear what Victoriaindustrial is: electronics and 19th-century sounds combined in a Pop sauce, as previously mentioned, but all supported by the evident technical and compositional skills of the author who denies herself nothing, she screams, whispers, and then screams again: desperation, resignation, melancholy flow like rivers in flood that calm only when the Sweet Autumn chooses to nervously make her violin vibrate.

From here on, the journey will be a path dotted with ups and downs among more or less catchy dark melodies ("Swallow", "Liar", and "Misery Loves Company" above all) and Electrified Lullabies (which we like very much): "The Art of Suicide" and "Dead is the New Alive" for example... But the common denominator of this mixing of influences, seemingly far apart, is to captivate, it doesn't matter if the lever is the quest for the Macabre, the new Goddess of Gothic (yes, I did it, I associated the word Gothic with Pop... ahahahahaah...) goes straight to the point, rarely digresses, and when she does, you can't help but let yourself be guided into labyrinths made of sometimes grating sounds, only to find the Light again... Light? nooo, perhaps a half-light, there is very little Light in the Art of Autumn, but that little that arrives is enough to warm our hearts.
The "tortuous" "I Want My Innocence Back" and the emblematic (in the declaration of intent) "Gothic Lolita" clarify this particular alchemy which is created in listening, but the whole album is apparently dark and fragile...

"Why live a life that's painted with pity and sadness and strife", she suggests to us, and maybe for a while, we even believe it (deceived by the tempting skill of the strange Californian...), but then we remember that this is all Theater, representation indeed (also aided by the Bach-like citation, if one can say so... in the second album) so we turn off the Player and go out, now there is still the sun, tomorrow who knows...