Thirteen years ago, Amy Lee explored the perils of living in a society saturated with plastic images of perfection on “Everybody’s Fool”, the final single from Evanescence's debut album Fallen (2003): ‘Perfect by nature/ Icons of self-indulgence/ Just what we all need/ More lies about a world that’. Lee’s treatment of the familiar subject was more emotional than intellectual; the song was inspired by her own younger sister’s obsession with the highly sexualized - and ubiquitous - images of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The song and accompanying music video treated the threat of visual perfection to one’s mental health and self-esteem with an intensity typically reserved for addiction, abusive relationships, and infidelity: “It never was and never will be/ You don't know how you betrayed me/ And somehow you've got everybody fooled’.
Lee doubles down this need to accept one’s own flaws and shortcomings in “Imperfection”, the first glimpse of Evanescence’s upcoming Synthesis (their first release as a band in six years). The band may have embraced a symphonic electronic production in favor of their characteristic nu-metal sound, but their emotional core remains unchanged. Lee’s operatic soprano delivers yet another cathartic and urgent message about the need to overcome one's inner demon of self-doubt: ‘Don't you dare surrender/ Don't leave me here without you/ Cause I could never/ Replace your perfect imperfection’. The accompanying music video juxtaposes Lee with a little girl (a younger version of herself). They sit at the same bus stop: Lee is waiting out a downpour; her younger self watches paramedics wheeling a blanket-covered stretcher into a waiting ambulance. The message is clear: one must fight against all the odds of turning into another casualty.
Rolling Stone noted that Lee’s external demons are now the friends who have been (and those who may be) lost to suicide and depression: “I'm singing from the perspective of the person left behind, the person in the waiting room. It's a plea to fight for your life, to stay. Don't give into the fear – I have to tell myself that every day. Nobody is perfect. We are all imperfect, and it's precisely those imperfections that make us who we are, and we have to embrace them because there's so much beauty in those differences. Life is worth fighting for. You are worth fighting for." Evanescence has always been dark, sad, melodramatic and angry - but never nihilistic. "Imperfection" could stand further apart from the band's past hits in other regards, but their 'light-in-the-darkness' approach is certainly apt enough for the current context.
