Fallen is the debut studio album by American rock band Evanescence, released on March 4, 2003, by Wind-up and Epic Records.[2] After releasing several EPs and a demo CD, the group signed to Wind-up in January 2001. Writing songs for Fallen started near the time of the band's formation; several of the songs that would feature on the album appeared on the band's earlier releases. Fallen was recorded between August and December 2002 in several locations, including Conway Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. This was followed by a two-week period of mixing at Conway Recording Studios in North Hollywood. It is Evanescence's only album to feature guitarist Ben Moody, who left the band later in 2003.

 

Fallen is the band's most commercially successful album to date, selling over 8 million copies in the United States and over 17 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century. It debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 with 141,000 copies sold in its first week, peaking at number three in June 2003. The album topped the charts in more than ten countries, and has been certified seven-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

 

Fallen received generally positive reviews from music critics. Fallen yielded four singles: "Bring Me to Life", "My Immortal", "Going Under", and "Everybody's Fool". "Bring Me to Life" and "My Immortal" charted in over ten countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The album earned Evanescence five nominations at the 46th Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, Best Hard Rock Performance, and Best New Artist. The band won in the latter two categories. At the following year's ceremony, the album garnered an additional nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "My Immortal". To further promote the album, Evanescence embarked on their first headlining concert tour, the Fallen Tour, in 2004. A live album from this concert was released the same year, titled Anywhere but Home.

 

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ben Moody, Amy Lee, and David Hodges, except where noted.

 

No. Title Length

1. "Going Under" 3:35

2. "Bring Me to Life" (featuring Paul McCoy) 3:56

3. "Everybody's Fool" 3:16

4. "My Immortal" (writers: Moody, Lee) 4:23

5. "Haunted" 3:05

6. "Tourniquet" (cover of Soul Embraced's "My Tourniquet"; writers: Moody, Lee, Hodges, Rocky Gray) 4:38

7. "Imaginary" (writers: Moody, Lee) 4:16

8. "Taking Over Me" (writers: Moody, Lee, Hodges, John LeCompt) 3:49

9. "Hello" 3:40

10. "My Last Breath" 4:07

11. "Whisper" (writers: Moody, Lee) 5:27

12. "My Immortal" (band version, hidden track only on later pressings; writers: Moody, Lee) 4:33

Total length: 46:09

 

Singles:

 

"Bring Me to Life"

 

 

"Going Under"

 

 

"My Immortal"

 

 

"Everybody's Fool"

 

I’ve not heard this in full but my sister had it back in the day. My Immortal is such a moment *.*

This album was MASSIVE at the time. :o BMTL was ALWAYS on the music channels (I used to think Amy was so brave being filmed so high up :lol:) and it has aged really well. My Immortal remains stunning. I used to think Christina copied the My Immortal video for The Voice Within. :lol:

Hello is such a haunting and chilling track. One of my faves, as well as Everybody’s Fool.

Decided to schedule up another listen of this; easily done as it's one of my favourite albums of all time and definitely influenced the direction I'd take when I started musically exploring. Dramatic goth-rock was clearly a style that I'd like, it's amazing that this was ever as mainstream as it was and I love 2003/2004's time for that.

 

'Going Under' is a lovely submission and waiting room song before the song launches into the tour de force of 'Bring Me To Life' (which seems to be sadly known these days as a little bit of a meme song, though of course as it was the most popular one, that's sort of to be expected). 'Everybody's Fool''s sounds so much like the Nightwish songs that were coming out about the same time but as if they had their 2007-2011 vocalist. 'My Immortal' is lovely and heartbreaking as ever, though I definitely prefer the drama that the Band Version adds. I'd forgotten about the ethereal choirs in 'Haunted', those are really so beautiful.

 

Past the first five, it's ever so marginally weaker but only just, 'Tourniquet' is played just a tad too straight for what they were doing, that it's a disguised cover (of an obscure song of a former band of one of the members), not one they wrote for this, is why it stands out slightly as a weak point, and 'Imaginary' takes its time to get to the good bit - which is the guitar solo. 'Taking Over Me' is a very stellar example of their sound though, and 'Hello' is jawdroppingly sad and beautiful - and if any of the tracks it's this one, after the singles that most contributes to their goth/edgy image. I think that piano line will haunt me whenever I think about this album.

 

Fortunately before I get too bummed out by the existential dread that 'Hello' knocks me into 'My Last Breath' appears to kick the final stretch into, if not high gear at least a much more rocky soundscape and several peaks and falls of energy, and 'Whisper' is a secret 'Bring Me To Life' in that it also is an epic and keeps the energy all the way through - very important for metal music as a big part of the appeal (at least in my experience) is hijacking the listener's adrenaline with sonic aggression and making them slightly breathless when it comes to the more upbeat songs - this is a great way to build passion for these bands and it's how it works with me. 'Whisper' certainly does all of that. Finally, very few Evanescence fans, myself included, complain about hearing 'My Immortal' for a second time, this time with a timeless guitar solo.

 

While there were many, many, lesser-known bands that were doing this sort of style (just less poppified) before and continued doing it long after Evanescence had had their success with 'Fallen', this is easily the starter album for any sort of heavy rock scene kid. Especially for women who'd go on to the front and centre of metal bands or other 'cool' positions in music - I seriously doubt there'd be as many as there are today without Evanescence - even though Nightwish/WT/Lacuna Coil were doing it at the time, they had yet to reach their peaks and were probably seriously helped in their home countries by 'Fallen's global popularity.

 

summary: incredible piece of work that, near enough, carries the entire 21st century of goth metal on its shoulders.

Bring Me To Life and My Immortal are classics, both stunning. I also really enjoyed Everybody’s Fool and Going Under.

 

I should revisit the album tracks as I can’t recall any of them.

Wardy, James and I were eyeing up this for a album listen through given it's passed 20 years since it's gradual climb to the #1 here after debuting at 18 7 weeks prior.

 

It's one that was played in my dads car frequently growing up at the time but I haven't really listened to it since round that time 2003/04 so wouldn't be against revisiting it now tbh as it is a classic one!

Love 'Whisper' and 'Hello' aside from the singles :wub:

Oh my so funny cos this morning I took the bus to commute and heard Bring me to Life on the radio

and thought Wow what an amazing track this still is, and why we don't have hits like this anymore

 

I remember I didn't buy the album originally although I loved BMTL and My Immortal

but then once I was in Iceland for work and had to do some crazy driving in a rental car and didn't have any music and radios were awful

so I remember we stop in a gas station and there were Cds for sale and bought the Evanescence album

and a couple others (Sade, Massive Attack, I think)

and oh my I played it like 10 times a day or something for 1 week :D

Yessssss let’s do it!

Absolutely iconic album, I listened to it yesterday

Hello and My Immortal are two flawless ballads

 

I used to love Haunted as well, on top of the singles

How about next Monday night for a listenthrough?

Monday's good for me ^_^

Count me in!

Added to the event calendar the listenthrough for this. 8 is a bit prob pushing it with Wardy not finishing work till half 8 though so best to go from 9 I'd say but up to you James ^_^

9 is great!

Looking forward to this in a bit!

Me too!

I can be there.