Wednesday, December 10, 2008

page 20

Poe is a female fronted 90's pop/rock band that never quite made “pop” status. As the front-woman for Poe, Annie Danielewsky naturally wrote all of the lyrics. The central theme of her album “Haunted” is based strongly on her brother’s book “House of Leaves,” although hers seems to be the female take on the subject. In this particular concept album, Poe's lyrics serve two functions: one is to entertain the masses and the other is to tell the story of House of Leaves. However, Poe's version of the story is told through the eyes of a woman, instead of a man (as the book is told). It is a concept album in the sense that there is one unifying theme, but the story is not told from start to finish here. It is told through a woman's voice, but more importantly, most of it seems like it is told though the eyes of Navidson's wife, Karen. In fact, the only male voice in the album comes from a abstract quote taken from the Danielewsky's book. What's more is that this male voice is heard only in the remix. Maybe Poe is trying to tell us that she didn't want any men directly linked to the book in her work and would allow it only in a remix (which suggests that it was not her idea, because remixes are almost always done by someone other than the original artist). Regardless, the sexual bias of story is shifted almost exclusively to the female in Poe's album.
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