The albumOpheliac was preceded by the Opheliac EP, released in Spring 2006. This was a preview of the full-length album, and featured the first six tracks plus "Marry Me" and "Thank God I'm Pretty", the latter as a hidden track following the former. However, track 5 "I Want My Innocence Back" does not play on any one of the copies of the EP, due to a manufacturing error. In addition to the musical and spoken-word tracks, Opheliac features live concert footage, clips from her performance of "Misery Loves Company" on the WGN Morning Show on January 12, 2006, and three short video clips entitled "Inside the Asylum: Lessons in Being a Wayward Victorian Girl". Opheliac was originally released as a limited editiondigipak in Europe on September 1, 2006. Then it was released worldwide on September 22, 2006, Emilie Autumn's birthday. When this limited edition sold out, it was released in a standard jewelcase edition on February 5, 2007. There is no difference in musical content between the two versions, however, the digipak edition includes an additional "Opheliac" poster. As of August 6, 2008, Emilie announced that she will be releasing Opheliac Nationwide in music stores across the US on October 7, 2008. The US release features exclusive tracks, such as "The Art of Suicide - Acoustic" and out-takes from the Opheliac recording sessions. A third issuing of Opheliac, entitled The Deluxe Edition, was released by The End Records in October 2009 to coincide with her first American tour.
Track listing
Songs and lyrics
The album was written solely by Autumn. The name Opheliac derives from the song of the same name, which also served as the album's lead single. The song's name is derived from the character Ophelia from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, whom the song is about. Emilie has described the word "Opheliac" as meaning "to explain the condition of a person have the characteristics of 'Ophelia' and the 'Ophelia' archetype. While the original Ophelia did indeed go 'mad', it was not primarily caused by her boyfriend knocking off her dad, but rather by not only Hamlet, but also all the men in her life manipulating and pushing her to the point of no alternative." The song "Shalott" is based on the poem "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. She also talks about her bipolar disorder in songs such as "God Help Me", "Swallow", and "Misery Loves Company". The songs "I Want My Innocence Back" and "Gothic Lolita" were inspired by the abuse Autumn went through as a child. Lolita also being the title and nickname of a young girl who is forced into a relationship with an older man in Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita.
''The Opheliac Companion''
In August 2009, Emilie released a companion "album" to Opheliac. This "album" consisted of an interview/chat between Emilie and her "sound guy" Inkydust. The discussion covers everything from the musical backing tracks to metaphors used in the lyrics. Containing 15 tracks at a length of approximately 8 hours, the album is currently available from Emilie's official store, AmazonMP3, Spotify, and iTunes.
