Fight Like a Girl (Emilie Autumn album)

As early as 2010, Autumn hinted that she was working on the album, revealing the acronym "F.L.A.G." on Twitter in June of that year, before later announcing the full title.{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/emilieautumn/status/15945868065|title=PRs! I'll let you in on so...|author=Autumn, Emilie|date=June 11, 2010|publisher=Twitter|access-date=1 August 2021}}{{cite web |title=Story |url=http://www.emilieautumn.com/story.html |website=Welcome To The Asylum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710190343/http://www.emilieautumn.com/story.html |archive-date=10 July 2011}}

Autumn scheduled three tours in 2012 to promote the album, each referred to either as the "Fight Like A Girl tour" or the "FLAG tour", the first throughout North and South America in January and February, and the next two in the UK and Europe in March and April.{{cite web |title=Show Tickets |url=http://www.asylumemporium.com/collections/show-tickets |website=The Asylum Emporium |access-date=2 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104182859/http://www.asylumemporium.com/collections/show-tickets |archive-date=4 January 2012}} Part of the North and South American tour was postponed to November and December of that year due to an unspecified illness.{{cite web |title=Tour Dates |url=http://emilieautumn.com/site/?page_id=451 |website=Emilie Autumn |access-date=2 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022021322/http://emilieautumn.com/site/?page_id=451 |archive-date=22 October 2012}}

Starting on March 3, 2012, and beginning with the song "We Want Them Young", Autumn began releasing the official lyrics to the songs through her blog.{{cite web |title=FLAG Lyrics: We Want Them Young |url=http://emilieautumn.com/site/?p=1 |website=Emilie Autumn |access-date=2 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107081741/http://emilieautumn.com/site/?p=1 |archive-date=7 November 2012 |date=3 March 2012}}

On April 11, 2012, the title track "Fight Like a Girl" was released as a single through Autumn's website as a digital download, featuring the song "Time For Tea" as a b-side.{{cite web |title=Fight Like A Girl: The Single |url=http://www.asylumemporium.com/products/fight-like-a-girl-single |website=The Asylum Emporium |access-date=1 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414171713/http://www.asylumemporium.com/products/fight-like-a-girl-single |archive-date=14 April 2012}}

The full album was released on July 24, 2012 as both a physical CD and an mp3 download.{{cite web |title=FLAG Release Date Announced, & "The Key" Lyrics |url=http://emilieautumn.com/site/?p=367 |website=Emilie Autumn |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120924142701/http://emilieautumn.com/site/?p=367 |archive-date=24 September 2012 |date=15 June 2012}}{{cite web |title=Fight Like A Girl: The New Album |url=http://www.asylumemporium.com/collections/music/products/fight-like-a-girl-album |website=The Asylum Emporium |access-date=2 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120727030917/http://www.asylumemporium.com:80/collections/music/products/fight-like-a-girl-album |archive-date=27 July 2012}}

In 2013, Autumn produced and starred in her first ever music video for the song "Fight Like A Girl", directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, and also featuring Marc Senter, Dayton Callie, and Autumn's longtime collaborators and back-up dancers Veronica Varlow, Maggie Lally (also known as Captain Maggot), and Ulorin Vex.{{cite web |title=Emilie Autumn: Fight Like a Girl |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2615112/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm |website=Imdb |access-date=1 August 2021}} In the video, Autumn and several other "asylum inmates" take revenge on and murder a group of men they have been forced to perform for. Autumn is then dragged off stage by the asylum guards and taken back to her cell, implying the previous events were a hallucination or fantasy. At the end of the video, one of the guards, portrayed by Senter, forcefully kisses her before locking her away, and it is revealed that, in doing so, he has slipped her a key.

As an adaptation of The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, many of the songs directly reference the events of the novel, sometimes even quoting the book directly. "Time for Tea" depicts the climactic scene of the novel, an event known as the Tea Party Massacre, where the inmates rise up against the doctors and take over the Asylum; "Girls! Girls! Girls!" depicts what is known in the book as "The Ophelia Gallery", where the inmates of the Asylum are exhibited as a sideshow attraction; and "I Don't Understand" portrays the main character's brief relationship with a sympathetic photographer. The track "4 o'Clock (Reprise)" is an instrumental reworking of the title track of Autumn's 2008 EP 4 O'Clock.

The album received mixed to positive reviews, with much of the critique concerning the clarity of the album's plot. Scott Wilson of espyrock.com said of the album, "it is theatrical, epic, empowering, scary, depressing, catchy, accessible, and most importantly, brilliant." Katherine Tullett of The Independent Voice praised the album's diversity of emotion and genre, saying "There’s not only one musical genre in the album, there’re a lot, so it makes the album rich in sound."{{cite web |last1=Tullett |first1=Katherine |title=Emilie Autumn – FLAG – Fight Like A Girl |url=https://www.theindependentvoice.org/2012/09/21/emilie-autumn-album-review-by-katherine-tullett/ |website=The Independent Voice |access-date=2 August 2021 |date=21 September 2012}} J Salmeron of Metal Blast criticized Autumn's choice to voice all of the album's various characters herself, stating, "While it might be cheaper to record every part by yourself, the story (which, as a result, is hard to follow) would be conveyed in a much clearer way if you get at least ONE other person to do part of the dialogue," but also praised the music and lyrics, concluding, "FLAG is a breath of fresh air." Christine Caruana of Loud Magazine commented, "Fight Like a Girl is not the place to start for newcomers. To understand and truly appreciate this record, you will need to have heard Enchant and Opheliac, read her novel and appreciate her story," while also calling it, "her most personal and intimate album to date."{{cite web |last1=Caruana |first1=Christine |title=Emilie Autumn: Fight Like a Girl |url=http://www.loudmag.com.au/album-reviews/emilie-autumn-fight-like-girl/ |website=Loud Magazine |access-date=2 August 2021 |date=22 July 2012}}

{{Track listing

| headline =

| all_writing = Emilie Autumn

| total_length = 64:31

| title1 = Fight Like a Girl

| length1 = 5:24

| title2 = Time for Tea

| length2 = 4:03

| title3 = 4 o'Clock (Reprise)

| length3 = 1:21

| title4 = What Will I Remember?

| length4 = 2:54

| title5 = Take the Pill

| length5 = 5:17

| title6 = Girls! Girls! Girls!

| length6 = 6:14

| title7 = I Don't Understand

| length7 = 2:12

| title8 = We Want Them Young

| length8 = 2:47

| title9 = If I Burn

| length9 = 5:31

| title10 = Scavenger

| length10 = 6:59

| title11 = Gaslight

| length11 = 5:09

| title12 = The Key

| length12 = 2:12

| title13 = Hell Is Empty

| length13 = 1:11

| title14 = Gaslight (Reprise)

| length14 = 2:13

| title15 = Goodnight, Sweet Ladies

| length15 = 4:44

| title16 = Start Another Story

| length16 = 1:57

| title17 = One Foot in Front of the Other

| length17 = 4:32

}}

• Emilie Autumn - music, lyrics, recording
• Ulrich Wild - mixing and mastering{{cite web |title=Fight Like A Girl |url=https://www.emilieautumn.com/fight-like-a-girl |website=Emilie Autumn |access-date=1 August 2021}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.emilieautumn.com Official website]
• {{YouTube|dvOXuZwOEvM|"Fight Like A Girl" official music video}}

{{Emilie Autumn}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2012 albums

Category:Emilie Autumn albums

Category:2010s concept albums