On A Day... Songs

“Largo” is a cover work from Emilie's 1997 instrumental album On A Day... , which features songs for violin. It was originally written by J.S. Bach.

It is one of my favorite instrumental works from Emilie overall, as the harpsichord and violin in her rendition sound perfectly sleepy.

It is also featured on Laced/Unlaced and Opheliac.

Enchant Songs

"Rapunzel" from her 2001 album Enchant is an earlier and less polished song, but it sounds impossibly charming. She combines electronic beats with classical instruments, though in a different way from her later works. As the title suggests, the song uses Rapunzel as a metaphor for letting people into your life, essentially saying you can't be free from the tower if you are too afraid to let yourself be heard. The instrumentation in the song sounds a little more medieval as well, rather than her future industrial direction.

"Juliet" very distinctly combines violin with industrial music in a way that doesn’t quite blend, creating a dichotomy that works strangely well. The violin and electronic music both take turns overpowering the other. Using Juliet more literally as a character than in "Rapunzel," the song is about love and it's consequences.

"Remember" is distinctly different from a majority of her other works. The droning background music still creates the ethereal atmosphere typical of Enchant, but with beats and a vocal style more commonly found in R&B, which take over the work.

Opheliac Songs

"Shalott" from her 2006 album Opheliac is actually an example of program music, with lyrics based off of the 1832 lyrical ballad "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred Tennyson. The song is about the Lady of Shalott and her escape from the tower she is cursed to live in. She wrote it in 2003 around the release of Enchant, which explains its' fairytale-esque style different from the other songs on Opheliac.

The very next song on the album is called “Gothic Lolita.” It mentions the fashion style in the title but is hardly about it – it instead references Nabokov’s Lolita to criticize and berate men who prey on young girls. She showcases her impressive range in this song, from high-pitched belting to verses growly and deep-voiced. Unlike “Shalott”, it is largely electronic, but there are still hints of violin scattered within.

One of my favorite songs by Emilie is also from Opheliac, titled “Marry Me.” It features sweet, vibrato-filled, theatrical vocals, with harpsichord and violin in the background. It is based on the life of Catherine Parr and her time married to King Henry the Eighth, satirizing royal life and loveless marriages.

Laced/Unlaced Songs

"Syringe" from the 2007 album Laced/Unlaced is a work combining electronic and classical instrumentation. It is a purely instrumental piece.

The cover of the album itself is rather creative. Being a double-disc album, one CD features classical works and the other features electronic works. One side of the CD case shows Laced, with Emilie wearing her corset laced tightly and the framed photo being of a Baroque violin. The other side is Unlaced, with a loose-fitting corset and the photo being an electric violin.

A Bit O' This & That Songs

"By The Sword" was originally released as a charity single written and recorded three hours after Autumn witnessed the events of 9/11. Thus, it is less polished than her later works, both due to its age and the fact that she recorded it with the tools she had at home. It is reminiscent of works on her Enchant album.

Fight Like A Girl Songs

"Fight Like A Girl", the titular song from the 2012 album of the same name, uses both violin and electronic music. The songs in this album are also from her musical, The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls. The interlude includes a reference to her 2006 song “Misery Loves Company” from Opheliac.

In the description of the featured official music video, Emilie writes this: "A cast and crew of sixty-five people assembled including special guests Dayton Callie and Marc Senter, and, led by visionary director Darren Lynn Bousman, transformed a Victorian theatre into the setting for Emilie and her army of women warriors to enact an epic battle for freedom, and a delicious tale of rebellion and revenge. In a mere two days, a world was created, stigma was turned to strength, and a damning insult became the ultimate compliment. In the music video for Fight Like A Girl's title track, Emilie celebrates the journey from victim to victorious, and, at last, the Inmates are running the Asylum."

The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls: Behind The Musical Songs

“Nothing”, from her 2018 album The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls: Behind the Musical has Emilie playing the role of both a Victorian girl locked away in an asylum – Emily-with-a-y – and Dr Stockill, a cruel and apathetic doctor at the asylum. The instrumentation is rather simple in comparison to her other works, with the vocals taking the main stage. Again, she uses largely both violin and harpsichord.

The linked video of the song features Adam Pascal performing the role of Stockill instead, which I thought was interesting.