Theatre Is Evil - Review

I never intended for this blog to become a space for reviews, but times call for a change.

Amanda Palmer recently released her newest full-length studio album, and as a kickstarter backer I received my download code in the email a few hours after the album dropped in the UK. I've not had my full package through in the post, but I couldn't wait any longer to hear the full album. I've been awaiting it rather anxiously, and after catching a section from a song in a local HMV, I was pretty desperate to get a listen.

With the digital download comes a whole heap of other lovely things, including a stencil .pdf, a lyrics booklet which is full of all of the lovely artwork, not to mention tos of photos from during the recording of the album. With the download you also recieve a whole shed load of B-sides and older tracks that I've previously have had the pleasure to listen to. I won't focus on particular songs, or B-sides, but here are my immediate thoughts on the album as a whole.

A lot of the album feels like a huge stage production fighting to take place, grabbing your attention at every corner. I want to do big dance kicks to songs, and beat my chest with my fists whilst crying in the rain. Some of songs of this album bring me to tears, for example The Killing Type, and others are complete joys to listen to, like Do It a With a Rockstar.

Hauntingly beautiful, The Killing Type has that nostalgic pain in it that comes with memories. There isn't much else to say, bar that this song has such a quiet desperation in it that almost makes it difficult to listen to. The honesty in AFP's lyrics kills me every time. The vocals are what bring me to my knees, but make sure to watch the video as well for a very beautiful, very hurting video.

From the grand opening echoes of Do It With a Rockstar, you feel transported. This is a fighting song, a siren song. It feels like a fist fight with a friend when you're drunk and handsy. I genuinely love this track; it has spark and punch and it kicks you in the balls and then gets down on its knees to kiss the bruise better afterwards.

This album, with its crying and shouting and screaming, feels like an extension of the community which AFP has created for herself and the artists she surrounds herself. Perhaps it is merely due to the notion of its creation, with the roots of this album based in Kickstarter territory, but AFP has a way of making the listener feel like more than that. I am never passive when listening to this album; I am constantly enjoying, singing, dancing, crying. It is fun and very, very AFP and I can't wait to dance to all of it at her show in October. 

Overall, the album is a beauty. I'm perhaps used to more vocals and more piano, but there are certainly enough haunting ballads on here to satisfy those cravings. AFP's album does something a good album should do, which is grow from what was started in the previous album. Where her previous full-length felt very much a solo session, this album feels like a full-blown polyamorous love affair of music and lyrics. I'm sure as time passes I will grow to adore the dark with the light, the hurt with the humour. But for now I'm content to let it settle over me like moss and take root. 

If you like the sound of it, or have been wondering whether to try listening to it or not, then I have to urge you to try it out. Amanda Palmer does this amazing thing where she allows you to pay whatever you want for her music; whatever you can afford or think it is worth. I urge you all to download this album, give her a shot, and give her what money you can in order to show her your thanks for creating such a wonderful, vibrant album.

Amanda Palmer says that we are all the media, and from the way this album has been born, grown and released into the wild, I truly feel invigorated towards music once more. In a time where music is growing stale, and fans are being guilted into paying large sums for what they are told is the 'privilege' of listening to new music, AFP is (unsurprisingly) doing something completely different, and she is finally getting the recognition she has long deserved.