“Wasted on You”: Evanescence throws back to the ’90s and tries to “head into the unknown” with new single

Credit: P.R. BrownIn April, Evanescence released the new song “Wasted on You,” the first single from The Bitter Truth, the band’s first all-original album in nine years. Musically, the track is reminiscent of the Radiohead hit “Creep,” and frontwoman Amy Lee tells ABC Audio you can expect more ’90s alternative references to pop up in future music.

“That’s some of my truest inspiration from my youth…[that made] me want to be in a band,” Lee says of the ’90s alt scene. “There are other parts of things we’ve recorded so far that remind me of that time, too. The fact that that’s kind of showing itself a little bit more on this album’s really cool to me.”

On the lyrical side, “Wasted on You” may remind you of the 2006 Evanescence hit “Call Me When You’re Sober.” While the language in “Sober” is much more literal than the more metaphorical “Wasted on You,” Lee acknowledges that certain themes run through both. After all, as she puts it, they are “both break-up songs.”

“Both of them are about, like, ‘That’s it, I gotta get outta here,'” Lee says.

On a broader scale, Lee feels that “Wasted on You” reflects a long-running theme in Evanescence’s music: a need to change a bad situation, even when it’s much easier to not to anything.

“[It’s about] making a decision to go down that harder path and change your outcome,” Lee explains. “It’s a hopeful thing, but it’s also a struggle, just to break out of that place and head into the unknown, which has potential to be something better than what you’re apathetically choosing to stay in.” 

The Bitter Truth will be released incrementally throughout 2020.

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