"What You Want" is a song by American rock band Evanescence. It was released as the lead single from the band's third eponymous album on August 9, 2011 through Wind-up Records. The song was written by Amy Lee, Terry Balsamo and Tim McCord and produced by Nick Raskulinecz. Lee described "What You Want" as a departure from the band's previous sound and said she was inspired to write the song by several experiences she had with her fans. Musically "What You Want" contains a variety of musical elements and it uses drums, guitars, synthesizers and a piano. Lyrically, the song has a theme of freedom.
Upon its release, "What You Want" received positive reviews from music critics who praised its instrumentation, Lee's vocals and the song's musical hook; several of them listed it as an album highlight. The song peaked at number 68 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and achieved higher success in its component charts. It also peaked at number 55 on the Canadian Hot 100, topped the UK Rock Chart and appeared in eight charts in different countries.
The music video for "What You Want" was filmed in Brooklyn, New York and it was directed by Meiert Avis and Stefan Smith. It shows the band performing the song live in a small warehouse and Lee running in various locations. The video received positive response from critics who generally praised the imagery. "What You Want" was performed live for the first time on MTV and later on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. It was added to the set list of the band's third world tour, Evanescence Tour (2011-2012).
Background and recording
"What You Want" was written by Amy Lee, Terry Balsamo, and Tim McCord in New York City and the production was handled by Nick Raskulinecz. During an interview with MTV News in June, Lee talked about the song saying, "[...] the song that I think is the first single is the song that wraps it all up. It's got a cool meaning, a lot of great lyrics going on, it also just smacks you right in the face and it's heavy and it's great." She noted that the song was a departure from the band's previous material and acknowledged that they wanted the new single to be "more than a hit".
Lee stated the song was inspired by and talked about her relationship with the band's fans, and the realization that following a music career "is what I'm supposed to do". She also explained that the theme of the song was freedom, saying that the song's lyric "Remember who you really are" was "exactly everything you could assume it means". Another inspiration for the song came from Lee's life, "That song is me talking to myself about not being afraid and coming back to this thing and living the life I was born to live. Sometimes, it takes a lot to do this. And I do love it very much, but there is always that fear of putting yourself under the microscope."
Speaking about the sound, Lee described "What You Want" as "very danceable" and her own vocals as "fun and snappy and it gives a cool dynamic [to the song]". Lee stated that the process of recording the song was fun for the band as they had excess time. She said that initially the song was conceived while the band was just recording demo, but as time passed it progressed and grew into something more. She wrote a chorus for "What You Want" and played it on the piano. Lee revealed that she was initially embarrassed when she came up with the lyrics and the melody of the song as she thought the members of her band would think she was Janet Jackson due to the usage of a hook. During an interview with M Music & Musicians Lee revealed that she wouldn't have recorded the song if it had been brought to her before the recording of Evanescence as she would have thought it was "stupid".
Release On August 22, 2011 Lee went to Toronto's Liberty Studios, to preview 5 mastered songs from Evanescence to a selected crowd of thirty people. "What You Want" was one of the five previewed songs. A snippet of "What You Want" premiered on MTV on July 11, 2011. During that time it was reported that the band's new single would be released in early August. After the performance by the band on MTV on August 8, 2011, the album version premiered on the channel's official website. The song was digitally released on August 9, 2011 exclusively on the iTunes Store, and to all other digital retailers on August 16. In the United Kingdom, the song was released on August 21, and a CD single of the song was released on September 9, 2011 in Germany. The band revealed during an interview that there were a lot of songs they were planning to release as the album's first single, but it was a "natural choice" to release "What You Want". To promote the single, the band partnered with SoundTracking and GetGlue. Fans who identified an Evanescence song using the SoundTracking application and shared it to Twitter, using the hashtag #Evcomeback, entered themselves to win an album from the band. If fans checked into Evanescence using GetGlue, they unlocked an exclusive sticker.
The song was well received by the band's fans. After James Montgomery from MTV News showed the snippets of the song, he asked the fans on Twitter to share their opinions about it. According to the fans tweets, the new songs were well received and praised. Kara Klenk of the same publication also confirmed the positive reception adding, "In the fast-paced music world where artists need to constantly reinvent themselves and pump out music, videos, appearances, and tours to keep their fans happy and interested, it's rare for a band to take a multi-year hiatus and come back to legions of fans who have anxiously awaited their return."
Composition "What You Want" contains a variety of musical elements and influences of several music genres: industrial rock, gothic pop, nu metal, classic synth-pop, electro-pop dance and baroque metal along with a pop hook. Several critics noted that some of the gothic and metal elements were prominent in the band's previous material, mostly due to their songs' piano-driven melody. Lewis Corner of the website Digital Spy noted that the classical strings present in the song reinforced the band's medieval influences. Dane Prokofiev of PopMatters further compared the song with Korn's music while Rick Florino of Artistdirect noted similarities to works by Depeche Mode. The song's beat was further described as dynamic, "slamming" and loud. As the song progresses, the melody goes through "dramatic crashes" and crescendos.
"What You Want" opens with rapid drums and soon moves into a guitar-driven mode, accompanied by synthesizers. Throughout the song, Lee uses "pseudo operatic" and "poppy" vocals. In the opening lines, she sings: "Do what you, what you want / If you have a dream for better / Do what you, what you want / 'Til you don't want it anymore." Those sounds are followed by a hard rock surging guitar and strings which were noted to be part of the band's characteristic sound. The chorus is instrumentally complete with crashing cymbals, "thrashing, high-wired rawk" guitars, electric guitars, keyboards and piano as Lee sings, "Hello, hello, remember me? I’m everything you can’t control / Somewhere beyond the pain there must be a way to believe we can break through." At the end of the song, Lee shouts the hook "Do what you, what you want," as her vocals are echoed and eventually fade away. Laurie Tuffrey of NME summarized the song as a "standard goth-pop fare, full of rapid drum breaks, swathes of fuzzy riffing and a catchy, chant-friendly chorus." Overally, Scott Shetler of Pop Crush described its production as "polished".
Several critics interpreted the song's lyrics during their reviews. Its theme was noted to be about freedom. Jason Lipshutz of Billboard said that in the song, Lee is "trying to convince a romantic partner to stop 'spiraling down, down, down' and help her find a new beginning." Kerrang! writer Steve Beebee wrote that Lee reaches a conclusion that "Love will guide you home." Talking about the lyrical content of the song, Laurie Tuffrey of NME opined: "It's quite hard to tell what the song's about, with lots of references to 'the unknown' and 'the pain', and it confusingly switches between suggesting people 'do what you want you want, if you have a dream for better' in the first verse and the decidedly creepier final chorus where Lee seemingly gets an ex-lover on the blower, only to tell them 'Hello, hello, it’s only me, infecting everything you love'."
Critical reception Scott Shetler of Pop Crush described the song as a "forceful rock track that reminds fans why the group was one of the most successful crossover acts of the past decade" and praised Lee's "strong-but-pretty vocals". James Montgomery from MTV News, praised the song saying that the "elastic-yet-lock-step energy not only makes the song the perfect comeback single for a band that's been gone for far too long, but it manages to capture the very essence of what inspired them to press on." Tom Goodwyn of the same publication wrote: "A big thumping drumbeat and driving guitar riff kick things off, before giving way to a stomping chorus written with NFL stadiums in mind." Karen Bliss of the magazine Rolling Stone praised Lee's "haunting" and "crystalline" vocals in the "industrial-strength sound" of "What You Want". Nick Catucci of the same publication gave the song three stars writing, "Amy Lee trades anguish for defiance, goosing her wail with welcome sass. Still, she's nearly overrun by the music, a collision of two-ton guitars, strings and piano." Steven Hyden of The A.V. Club wrote: "Lee really can sing, and the opener 'What You Want' shows she has the pipes (and even the submerged spunk) to become the new Pat Benatar this generation desperately needs." Rick Florino of Artistdirect gave the song five out of five stars praising the hook as one of the best in the band's career adding that it managed to make the song "instantly unforgettable". Florino further called the song "another classic from Evanescence" which will "revive rock music again" and concluded: At the heart of this epic, Lee relays another personal story that impacts intensely, especially as the song breaks during the bridge and her voice takes flight like never before. Lyrics like 'Somewhere beyond the pain there must be a way to believe' sear and soar, as Lee continues to hypnotize like no other singer in rock or pop for that matter.
While reviewing Evanescence as a whole, Catucci of Rolling Stone called the song "pummeling but pretty." In another review for the same publication, Matthew Perpetua wrote that the "heaviness is less top-heavy" in the song before adding that the band "never sounded so brisk and dynamic". Camille Dodero of the same publication called "What You Want" a "hair-blowingly grandiose" song. Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly gave the song a B rating and said, "the song's grinding guitars, massive drums, goth-princess piano frills, and warrior-grrrl vocal rage feel like 2007 all over again." Melinda Newman of HitFix praised the chorus lines saying that it should have been chosen as a theme song for the film Contagion.