In today's music industry, specialization is favored over diversity.  ("This isn't Dark Ambient, it's a Psytrance remix of an Ethereal track... ") Emilie Autumn is a welcome exception to this rule.  Her CD sampler "Chambermaid" draws from Bach, Broadway, and Bauhaus with equal skill.  At times unfocused but never sloppy, "Chambermaid" gives us an artist who has mastered her craft and is now finding her voice.

The self-titled opening track (taken from the full-length CD "Enchant") begins with a gorgeous multilayered intro, then quickly segues into an edgy, angry rock vocal.  This dichotomy between hard and soft reappears again in the bridges; Autumn shows off her classical violin training with a plaintive flourish, then spits out a chorus of "I'm not your Chambermaid/you're not my Lord."  I'm less impressed with the Space Mountain and Decomposition mixes of this song; although both showcase Autumn's instrumental skills, they struck me more as filler than as completed ideas.  With a little work the "Space Mountain" mix could definitely be dance-club material... but watching a superb musician try to work with the 1/1 thump-thump-thump house beat is like watching Mozart try to play piano with his nose.

With "Largo for Violin and Harpsichord," we get to see Emilie Autumn's classical training in action.  Many people believe classical music is a boring intellectual exercise, something to be studied but never enjoyed.  Nothing could be further from the truth, and this track makes that perfectly clear.  Together with Edward Murray on harpsichord, Autumn does for J.S. Bach's Sonata No. 4 in C Minor what pianist Glenn Gould did for his "Goldberg Variations" ... namely, bring it to immediate, passionate, urgent life.  Autumn's violin playing here is almost soulful, owing as much to torch songs as to classical rigor.  It's a wonderful effort, and one of my favorite songs on this CD.

The next track, "What If," left me simultaneously awed and annoyed.  The song itself is superb, as is Emilie Autumn's performance: unfortunately, the album mix sounds uncannily like Tori Amos, down to the trilling vocals and jangly piano.  This is unfortunate, particularly since Autumn is generally a more interesting (certainly a more wide-ranging and less self-indulgent) performer and writer than Amos.  I much preferred the Blackbird mix of this song, which showed off Autumn's skill in the studio.  The multilayered vocals and string arrangements were particularly nice: if she ever tires of performing, she's definitely got career potential as an arranger and producer.

The closing cuts, "Hollow Like My Soul" and "I Don't Care Much," give us Emile Autumn as torch singer.  This is a bold effort, particularly for a 20-year old classically trained musician.  Torch music is not about precision so much as world-weary passion: classical singers tend to catch the bombast and lose the soul.  Autumn avoids that trap handily.  I give her major points for covering Kanter and Ebb's "I Don't Care Much."  (Taken from Cabaret, the most Goth Broadway musical of all time).  Autumn gives this standard a great reading: she may not have had the time to live Sally Bowles' life, but you'd never know it from her bitter, ironic, vulnerable performance here.
Looking at this sampler, it's difficult to tell where Emilie Autumn will be ten years from now.  I can see her succeeding in musical theater, or in production and studio work, as easily as I can see her making her mark on the Goth scene.  With this kind of talent, I have no doubt that she will succeed: as Confucius said after visiting Lao Tze, "Today I have seen a dragon."  I just hope that her diversity doesn't scare off record executives unable to think outside an increasingly narrow set ofboxes.  Bureaucrats rarely know how to handle dragons.

Track Listing:
1) Chambermaid (Album Version)
2) Chambermaid (Space Mountain Mix)
3) Chambermaid (Decomposition Mix)
4) Largo for Violin and Harpsichord
5) What If (Album Version)
6) What If (Blackbird Mix)
7) Hollow Like My Soul
8) I Don't Care Much (from the musical, Cabaret)

Recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by Sanford Parker at Rainwalker Studios, Chicago, except
(2) remixed by Emilie Autumn with additional remixing
by Jim Vanaria
(3) remixed by Mykel Boyd of Angelhood and Sanford
Parker
(6) remixed by Emilie Autumn
Emilie Autumn: all vocals, baroque violin, violin, electric violin, piano, harpsichord, keyboards, programming
Edward Murray: harpsichord on Track 4
William Skeen: cello
Graham Brisben: drums
William Weaver: drum programming on Track 1
Michael Verzani: bass on Track 1
http://www.emilieautumn.com
Official Emilie Autumn Website