Evelyn Evelyn
Evelyn Evelyn
Eleven Records/8 Ft Records
8/10
Staring with a very “Mad World”-esque ballad, The Evelyn Evelyn record of the same name strikes a chord, sucking you into the woeful tale of the Evelyn sisters. Jason Webley and Amanda Palmer both narrate the story and act out the parts of the Evelyn Sisters, a pair of “real” conjoined sisters, both named Evelyn, who find themselves in surreal situations without the social understanding to realize the full brevity of their lives.
In a Lemony Snicket-like series of unfortunate events, the sisters find themselves orphans, residents of a chicken coop, denizens of child-smut peddlers, and of course, a circus. While it all sounds very ridiculous (it really is), Palmer and Webley have the musical chops to really make their story ensnare and move you. Between bombastic crescendos and minimalistic spoken word recitation of the twins’ life story, the pair turn what should have been a gimmicky concept album is turned into a moving account of lives lived as well as the could have been, given the tragic events surrounding the Evelyn sisters.
-Jonathan “The Emperor” Yost