The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events is the second studio album by indie pop duo The Gothic Archies. It is a concept album whose songs are loosely based on the thirteen books of Daniel Handler's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The music, like the writing in the books themselves, is morose for comic effect. Some of the songs' lyrics have something to do with the story itself and are often implicitly written in the voice of one of the corresponding book's characters; for example, "When You Play the Violin" is apparently in the voice of one of the book's five orphans, while "Dreary, Dreary" appears to be an ode to Beatrice, Lemony Snicket's ill-fated love interest. Others' connections seem to be in name only; for example, "Shipwrecked", The End's song, is about a man who decapitates his ship's crew in an attempt to be shipwrecked on an island with his true love, only to discover that there is no island anywhere nearby. At the end of the final track ("We Are the Gothic Archies") is a section of pig latin. Reading the lyrics reveals the message "Oh, the archiesAy othicGay heTay, areAy eWay, Illiantbray yricistlay an'tcay ouyay eesay?" Interpreted, "Oh, the Archies Gothic The, Are We,Brilliant lyricist can't you see?" A promo version of the CD was briefly available to support the book The End. It includes the tracks "Scream and Run Away", "Walking My Gargoyle", and "Crows".

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Stephin Merritt. 

Personnel

The Gothic Archies

• Stephin Merritt

with

• Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler – accordion
• John Woo – electric sitar

See also

• A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Lemony Snicket

References

External links

• The Tragic Treasury at Nonesuch Records
• The Tragic Treasury at LemonySnicket.com
• "Smile! No One Cares How You Feel" as performed live on WAGA's morning TV news show.
• Interview between Stephin Merritt and Lemony Snicket, discussing the album.

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