Emilie Autumn- Fight Like a Girl

Artist: Emilie Autumn

Album: Fight Like a Girl

Label: The Asylum Emporium

Genre: Victoriandustrial

Website: https://www.emilieautumn.com/

It’s been six years since Emilie Autumn released an album (her previous album was Opheliac). Since then, Emilie Autumn has grown musically, vocally and dramatically. While she spent most of the past years touring, gaining fans (Plague Rats) worldwide and re-releasing previous material, her third studio album, Fight Like a Girl,has been announced on Twitter by Emilie Autumn since 2010.

While Opheliac was softly touching upon mental illness and combining it with 21^st century feminist anthems, Fight Like a Girl is centered around this theme. Similar to Autumn’s book The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, the album tells the story of Emilie’s experiences in an insane asylum and relates it to the story of Victorian-age Emily, suffering abuse and disrespect as an inmate in an asylum. The album is a preparatory effort for Autumn’s upcoming 3-hour long musical which will be performed in London in 2014, and has all the diversity of a dark musical. Different characters are performed on the album, and it gets a bit confusing as Emilie Autumn sings all these roles, although her vocal variety is extremely rich. The songs should be treated as part of a concept, and therefore lack sometimes the pumping angry feminist club-readiness of Opheliac. The violins play a less prominent role on Fight Like a Girl, but the harpsichord is featured throughout the entire album.

The album opens with a feminist anthem Fight Like a Girl, which resembles the style from Opheliac. Although the lyrics are dark and witty, the chorus is catchy and makes you sing along. The second track “Time for Tea”brings the dark musical, and fits the more dramatic turn Emilie Autumn’s stage performance has taken over the years. Revenge is a dish that is best served now! The next track, “4 O’Clock” is a beautiful composition, and flows naturally into “What Will I Remember”, which is reminiscent of the musical Cats. The richness of Emilie Autumn’s vocal talent radiates in this song. After this interlude of calmer tracks, “Take the Pill” brings the elektro back to the album – and it’s a song that could become the anthem of the neurodiversity movement. With “Girls, Girls, Girls” the album makes a trip to a circus-like sound, reminiscent of the second album by The Doors (Strange Days) – although the strangeness could be attributed to the way society deals with mental illness. “I Don’t Understand” tells a story, and should be seen on a stage. With African drums, dark keyboard lines and a haunting choral approach “We Want Them Young”would not be misplaced on a horror soundtrack. Another track centered around Autumn’s vocal capabilities is “If I Burn”, which is reminiscent of “The Art of Suicide” from Opheliac.My least favorite track of the album is Scavenger – it simply seems to miss something to really fit into the concept, and that “something” might come to life on stage. “Gaslight” is a ballad with a harpsichord line similar to “Marry Me”from Opheliac. The 12^th track “The Key” is part of the story of the Victorian inmates escaping an insane asylum, and the theme is repeated throughout the next tracks “Hell is Empty”, “Gaslight” – reprise, “Goodnight, Sweet Ladies and Start Another Story,” which makes the second half of the album less interesting than the first half. The final song “One Foot in Front of the Other” is a brilliant end to the album – it’s an empowering song for every person in misery who is trying to get back on his feet and move on with life.

Take a Listen: "Fight Like a Girl