Imaginaerum, Part One

Good people of the Internet, I have a confession to make you to:

I am a Nightwish fan.

...Yes, these folks.

Now, I know this is nothing to be ashamed of.  In fact, liking Nightwish is a lot better than, say, liking some pop star.  However, the Internet is still rife with the war over who's the better lead singer, Tarja Turunen or Anette Olzon.  Myself being more a fan of Tuomas Holopainen's writing and Marco Hietala's vocals mixed with any female vocals, I find myself with a problem because I simply don't care about who's the better lead singer and whether or not throwing Tarja out was the end of the bad as I know it.  There are more important things.

For example, the new album: Imaginaerum.

Now I feel obligated to tell you that the album was released November of last year and that, I'm such a a lousy American fan, I didn't find out until a month or so ago.  However, I also didn't start this blog until sometime last week, so forgive me for not being up-to-date on a lot of things.

I will tell you that I have listened through the album multiple times and I am super-psyched that this album, this concept album, has been turned into a movie.

I have two words for you...

FUCK YEAH!

Excuse my dirty language, but... well, that says it all, really.

The album itself is AMAZING.  As it is a concept album, it has a story and theme running through it.  This means two things: you are meant to listen to the song from beginning to end each song in the order they placed it and when listening to the album, your mind is to eventually come to a conclusion as to its meaning.  So, I'm going to do something a little different.  I'm going to listen to the album song by song and tell you the story I get when listening to the album.  You can listen to it some other time and come to your own conclusions.  You should listen to this album on your own anyhow because it's wonderful.  In the end, I'll also post a quote of what the band said the album is about.

Savvy? Let's start!

The first track, Taikatalvi,  is something like a lullaby and their first ever intro song to an album.  It introduces the theme of winter as "Taikatalvi" translates to "magic winter".  You can check wikipedia and pretty much any fan site for that info.  It is sung completely in their native language (Finnish) and it is beautiful.  It introduces a child-like wonder, walking into a new world.  The ending literally makes me think of crossing through a barrier from one world to another.  It's magical.  The choir in the background mixed with the tinkling sound like that which would come through a music box... It puts me in mind of little ballerina fairies with snowflakes instead of tutu skirts.  At the same time, I can picture a little child, about to fall asleep with one of those music box globes on the bedside table with the child watching the little fake snowflakes drift.  Then there's that woodwind instrument that comes in at some point and steals my breath away...

Oh yeah, I'm pretty much one of the worst music commentators out there because I really don't know a whole lot about it.  I just know what I like and I like music that puts certain images in my head as I listen to it.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.  If you try to talk technical aspects of music with me, you will find yourself smirking with your superior knowledge at the dunce.  Unfortunately, such an argument will fail to convince me of anything but your douchbaggery.

The second track, Storytime, starts right in where Taikatalavi ends.  It's faster-paced with electric guitars breaking in immediately.  This song won me over immediately because it is literally about stories.  There's no other way to interpret the chorus:

"I am the voice of Never-Never-Land
The innocence, the dreams of every man
I am the empty crib of Peter Pan,
A soaring kite against the blue, blue sky,
Every chimney, every moonlit sight
I am the story that will read you real,

Every memory that you hold dear."

I love this song because of the idea presented in the song.  That idea is highlighted in green.  The whole song talks about how the world used to be empty, barren.  Then a writer, a storyteller, a painter came along and imagined the world, changing it, creating it.  The world became a snowflake on his palm (there's that winter theme).  The whole song seems to speak the message that everything we are is stories and I love that... because I'm a writer and I have an awe for the human imagination.  The music helps toward this theme because, to me, it feels like it's full of joy.  I can easily dance to this stuff.  There is a part that seems to delve into the choral bit in the other song where the only lyric I can make out is "ahs" and "innocence" that speaks to me of more of that transfer from one world to another.  I could easily imagine the music video of this song being a child opening a book and the characters come exploding out, dancing and singing around him. There, however, is a music video:

It isn't the music video I'd pair with the song, but they have to promote the movie... which I understand.  It is a fun music video.  I can't get over Anette Olzon dressed as some nighmarish Snow White... or the Phantom of the Opera reference... While we're on that, this song does begin the theme of referencing preexisting written works.  This song alone references Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland, both stories that involve people going into worlds full of imagination and just oddities in general and then returning to our world happy, but changed. Now, maybe these two specific stories are just referenced because both are in the public domain.  Or perhaps there's some other reason we'll find out as we examine the album.  Let's see...

The third song is called Ghost River and it is a song that is the reason I love Nightwish.  That's right, the song is a duet between Marco and Anette.  Now, I find the song to be interesting because it feels to me like they're arguing over something.  See, most people  (including me) believe that "the river " is actually life with all it's twists and turns.  Now here's where the argument comes in.  Anette sings about the wonder of the river.  She says "It's a scary ride we'd give anything to take."  Meanwhile, Marco tells you how you will go down the river, drown, and the river's going to take you're only child.  In short he's saying that life will kill you and you're children will be swept along the path of the river as well.

It's a freaking argument between two beings (some have said they're Mother Gaia and the Devil) on what life actually is!  Is the riverbed snow-white or pitch-black?  Is it heavenward or deep down? Do we live as we dream or scream?  Is life this horrible nigthmarish thing that will destroy you and then you die?  Or is it this wonder-vale? This magic ride?  Anette pleas that you come across the river despite the danger while Marco tells you just what could happen to you if you come across that river that is life.  They disagree to the end of the song and I think that sort of kick-starts one of the main themes of this album.  Is life full of wonder and mystery or full of horror and misery?  Or is it some mixture between the two?

The fourth song, Slow Love Slow, is a little busy talking about love to really answer that question.  It's a slower song and a solo sung by Anette.  It's light on the lyrics, but heavy  on the soft drums and the tinkling piano.  And on closer listening, I realize that Marco does sing with her when she sings the chorus, but it's more of a harmony of sorts than a duet.  The song, to me, seems to speak of frustration over the fact that love doesn't seem to move the way they want it to.  The person seems to want more.  They feel lonely and want someone with them, but all they can do right now is dream.  And I believe there is no song on this album that doesn't call on that choir.  The song began as one of my least favorite songs because it's slow and it doesn't fit the rest of the album theme, but at the same time, love is one of the best things about life.  And if it isn't coming fast enough... well, that's a point in the "life sucks" argument.  This is interesting because it's sung by the same voice that previously pleaded that you cross the river despite the pain and suffering that may come from it.  what's that say to you?  Because it tells me that she's got more credit to argue for the joy of life because this song shows that she knows how much life can really, truly, be horrible.  However, this song can also be seen as a turning point for that character as seen in the next song...

The fifth song is I Want My Tears Back.  Now I will tell you that I immediately gravitated to this song and loved it instantly.  Mostly because I've been going through some stuff of my own where I wish I had the wonder and innocence and love of life that I had when I was a child.  I want my tears back, too, so I can sing along to this song and it feels true and real to me.  This song is also another Anette/Marco duet... and I've already told you how much I like Marco's voice when accompanied by the softer influence of a woman's voice.

Now, the message of the song is clear.  Both characters want the innocence and wonder (i.e., "tears") of childhood.  Anette spends the verses listing all of the things that are wondrous to a child. Honestly, if there were a way to make an Innocence Potion, Tuomas put the list of ingredients right here in the song.  It's a potion grocery list!

So... what do you need to have your tears back?  Let's see... I need... the treetops, the chimneys, the snow bed stories, winter grey, wildflowers, those meadows of heaven, wind in the wheat, a railroad across waters, the scent of grandfatherly love, blue bayous, Decembers, moon through a dragonfly's wings, a ballet on a grove, still growing young all alone, a rag doll, a best friend, and the voice of Mary Costa. 

Well, that's a difficult list to fill.  Though the fact that "still growing young all alone" is on the list sort of detracts from my "It's a List of What I Need for Tears" idea.  The reason "meadows of heaven" is highlighted is because it's a reference to the last Nightwish album, Dark Passion Play.  This album is rife with references which will get thicker as the songs progress.  Another reference is that the music of this song sounds a lot like the music of the song "Last of the Wilds" which was also rereleased as, "Erämaan Viimeinen" with lyrics.  part of it is that they brought back Troy Donockley on the pipes... that's right, this song has Irish bagpipes.

In terms of where it falls in the story, in Ghost River, Anette and Marco (possibly as Mother Gaia and the Devil) are arguing over whether life is really worth living.  Then, in Slow, Love, Slow, Anette has to confront a disappointment of sorts.  Then comes in "I Want My Tears Back".  In this song, they don't argue, they agree.  They actually sing together... in unison.  Again, the chorus isn't hard to interpret:

Anette: Where is the wonder where's the awe
              Where's dear Alice knocking on the door
              Where's the trapdoor that takes me there
              Where the real is shattered by a Mad March Hare

Marco: Where is the wonder where's the awe
              Where are the sleepless nights I used to live for
              Before the years take me
              I wish to see
             The lost in me

Anette wants the beauty and wonder of life and imagination.  Marco, possibly wants to be bipolar again rather than just depressed... or he wants the childhood glee he's lost.  Either way, eventually Anette begins to sing along with Marco.  Mother Gaia agrees with the Devil.  Yeah...  How many people can see how bad that should be?  Because after they sing in complete duet... we get the awesome nightmare fuel, unleaded that is.... Scaretale.

Oh, and did anyone else catch the Alice in Wonderland reference?


Scaretale is the sixth song on the album.  In the previous song, Anette and Marco asked, begged for their childhood innocence to be returned to them.  Specifically, they asked for "sleepless nights".  Now, dear readers, what are the reasons that children don't sleep at night?  I'll give you a moment to think about it...

Yup... NIGHTMARES!

What happens when Mother Gaia agrees with the Devil?  It's not good.

Now, the song itself is amazing (you'll get sick of that word eventually). So many affects within the song and the way the vocalists sing is just off-putting enough that you actually feel like you've entered a scarier world, a place that disorients and is not right.  By asking for those tears, you've fallen down the rabbithole and Wonderland has not improved since Alice left!

So let's recap this, you went through the portal into the world of Imaginaerum.  There, you found Mother Gaia and the Devil (Ghost River) arguing about whether or not crossing the river is worthwhile.  Obviuously, you run into Mother Gaia's arms for comfort because the Devil is scary and she sings you a sweet song (Slow, Love, Slow), but the song reminds her of some of the sad things about life and she starts to agree with the fracking Devil.  And then, the scene changes, because Mother Gaia is mother earth and mother earth is agreeing with the fracking Devil.  You know the story of Demetra and Persephone; you know the crap that can happen when MOTHER EARTH starts to think life isn't worth it.  That's scary, you run away... into a woods.

The first thing you hear is little children singing "Ring Around the Rosie" which may or may not be a children's rhyme about the black plague.  Then you've got the chords from every horror film you've ever seen and you begin to run, run fast as you can because this shit is getting real.

Unfortunately, you find Mother Gaia who is much changed in a land of winter and cold and snow and that darn children's choir going "la, la, la".  Luckily, Mother Gaia moves, but she's all scary and disjointed... and she's not acting like she ought to.  Gone is the mother who tried to comfort you, now you are faced with a force of nature determined to bring your tears back by making you shit yourself.

I have to admit, this is one of the few times I really, genuinely love Anette's vocals because they are so off-putting.  She isn't trying to sound pretty, she's trying to sound like a sideshow attraction and it works.

Mother Gaia, changed into some frightening nightmare crone determined to scare the crap out of you, proceeds to take you into a sideshow attraction where a child is being rocked in a cradle to the sound of a clock sounding thirteen chimes rather and the normal amount of one through twelve.  Then there's that cannibal bride you've got to avoid... look at the blood of her husband dripping down her chin. 

And then you watch Mother Gaia get eaten by snakes.

You are alone in the Devil's sideshow and Mother Gaia can not protect you anymore because she just got herself eaten by snakes.  You know, the creature that tempted Eve with the apple, the creature that usually represents the Devil.  He ate Mother Gaia!!! (dont' worry, she gets better)

So, terrified, you run around the sideshow, get trapped in the room of mirrors... and come out in the middle of the circus ring... where the Devil presides over the whole thing as the Ringmaster.  There's ghouls and restless souls and nightmarish clown and they all follow the devil.  So, you run away and he chases  you... right back into Nightmare Mother Gaia's waiting arms... with the hoardes of spiders and closet tentacles and harpies that attack you.  So... you run away because this stuff is just too crazy.


Now, go listen to the album and I'll give you the other half of my rundown and opinion of this album in my next blog post.  I didn't know I had so much to say about this album and my interpretation of it... which could proven wrong when the movie comes out.

Sweet dreams!!!