Saturday 8 February 2014

Essential Songs For Existence 10: Bring Me To Life

Somebody at school once started singing this song one lunchtime a couple of years ago, and everyone joined in. It went swimmingly, until someone sang the wrong words about three lines in, and it all fell apart.

Evanescence's Bring Me To Life is taken from their debut album Fallen (2004), which sold over 18 million copies. One of those copies belonged to my mum, which is how I came to hear of Evanescence, whose music has since influenced me to listen to genres I never thought I'd listen to, much less like (genres I hadn't, in fact, ever heard of before - who knew there are so many different types of metal?) Bring Me To Life is probably their most famous song, having reached the top ten in the charts in a number of countries, and it deserves the recognition it gets - in my opinion, it is one of Evanescence's best songs.

The line up of the band has changed over the years and, having finally released their third album in 2011 (self-titled Evanescence, because, according to lead singer Amy Lee, it is the album they felt they identify most with, or something along those lines), are currently on hiatus again, but that does not change their backlog of good songs. Every song on Fallen is worth a listen, but if you pushed me to pick out favourites apart from Bring Me To Life, I'd go for Taking Over Me, Everybody's Fool, and My Last Breath. Personally, I don't think their second album The Open Door (2007) quite lives up to their first, but nevertheless, from this album I recommend Call Me When You're Sober, Sweet Sacrifice, and All That I'm Living For. The third album Evanescence is certainly heavier than its predecessors, and on first listen I didn't think I'd like it, but after I got used to the new sound I found that this wasn't the case. My favourite songs from Evanescence are The Change, Lost In Paradise, Oceans, and Never Go Back, which was written about the tsunami and earthquake in Japan.

Bring Me To Life is certainly always going to be somewhere on my list of favourite songs, because it's just so awesome. It has the drama of a powerful metal band behind it, it has the beauty of Amy Lee's voice and piano playing, and it has a catchy tune and sing-a-long-able lyrics. Apart from any difficulty in mastering said beautiful piano introduction when you're used to playing keyboard chords not piano bass clef melodies, what's not to love? :)

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