The Open Door

Daniel once commented that he didn't like Evanescence's second album, The Open Door.  After I got over the shock of imagining Daniel listening to Evanescence, I found myself comparing the two albums.
I love The Open Door.  Second albums tend to be the same thing from bands, but this was distinct and different and extraordinary baroque in its darkness and fury and pain.  I love how unafraid it is to be so demonstrative.  A lot of people would mock that, but Evanescence embraces it.



Probably my favorite song on the album is "Like You," which is about losing a loved one.  Apparently Amy Lee wrote it about losing her sister.  I love my sister, and I know, without a doubt in my mind, that I would throw myself in front of a bus for her.  Or anything else large and deadly, for that matter.  If I lost my sister, I don't think I could begin to deal with my despair.  And somehow that makes this song all the better for me. 


"Cloud Nine" at one point samples a section of Mozart's infamous Requiem.  For a long time I could hear it in the song, and it would nag at me, because I was certain I was hearing something I knew.  A couple of years ago I was listening to Requiem and I realized what it was about this song.  And I love that about so much music: finding little things in it long after I've listened to it over and over again.  I probably do this because I have no music knowledge whatsoever and am slow.  But it tickles me all the same.

And it's the little touches that make this album for me.  Introductions like in "Snow White Queen" and "Lacymosa" have wonderfully little additions that add up to lovely sounds.  I wish more rock was produced like this. 
None of this is to say their first album, Fallen, is bad.  Far from it.  But Fallen is a much more subdued set of songs; it's not as angry, it's a more stripped down sound.