Evanescence ‘What You Want’ is Dance-y Hard Rock – Song Review [Audio]
Amy Lee and Evanescence Unveil Dance-Happy Rock Track
It’s tough to believe, but nearly five years have passed since goth-pop favorite Evanescence have released a fresh album. Fans, rest confident, the time is here, and Amy Lee and her entourage are in the middle of a full-scale album release, with international tour dates and plenty of press to boot.
Evanescence just released the first single off their upcoming, self-titled album, and the track “What You Want,” brings a stormy blast of hard rock and anguish pop, with Evanescence’s typical layers of symphonic chords. Move towards the bottom of the page and click on the player to hear the song.
“What You Want” is an anguished, pleading rocker urged by plugging guitars and spiraling synths, built around Lee’s guttural, earthy delivery. Her lyrics are as begging as always: “Do what you what you want, if you have a dream for better / Do what you what you want till you don’t want it anymore / Remember who you really are / Do what you what you want, your world’s closing in on you now / It isn’t over.”
Something different for the quintet are the danceable, poppy rhythms, making this an extremely mainstream song that could fit on the radio dial for rock or pop. The band have stated many times that this song – and album, in general – is about “the fans,” and the lyrics almost call out to the fans: “Hello, hello remember me? I’m everything you can’t control / Somewhere beyond the pain there must be a way to believe we can break through.” Lee’s throaty voice persists even as the synths and heavy guitarist portend to swamp her.
Evanescence’s album is due out Oct. 17. Nick Raskulinecz of Foo Fighters and Rush celebrity produced the album. Listen to the song, “What You Want,” below.
Ink Rating: 4 out of 5 Splatters
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6 Comments
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09 Aug 2011, 1:38 pm
This song rocks!!!!!!
09 Aug 2011, 5:35 pm
Glad you like it, Jamie!
10 Aug 2011, 2:33 pm
Great new tune! Watch the lyric video that I created: http://youtu.be/Cm8SsH8CDKQ
Found lyrics from their website: http://evanescence.com/audio/whatyouwantlyrics.html
10 Aug 2011, 2:59 pm
Sometimes I don’t know whether to dance or headbang when I listen to the song. I love the mixing of the different sounds, it would be awesome to hear rock again on Pop radios, but I don’t know how open minded Pop radio and their audience are to something that is not trendy, Adele’s success is quite an anomaly. Anyway, they need to be more diverse in the music that they play, since electro dance us just getting.
I give this song an A
10 Aug 2011, 11:54 pm
I love it. I hope the album is like this. It’s comparable to when U2 expanded their sound with “Achtung Baby”, then “Zooropa” and “Pop” in the 90s. Not as much as they did though.
17 Jan 2012, 12:16 pm
I absolutely love this song!!!!!!!!