Track Listing

1. Scream And Run Away
2. In The Reptile Room
3. The World Is A Very Scary Place
4. Dreary, Dreary
5. When You Play The Violin
6. This Abyss
7. Crows
8. Smile! No One Cares How You Feel
9. Freakshow
10. How Do You Slow This Thing Down?
11. A Million Mushrooms
12. Things Are Not What They Appear
13. Shipwrecked
14. Walking My Gargoyle
15. We Are The Gothic Archies

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41807 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-10
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
This musical companion to bestselling novelist Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is comically creepy fun for children of all ages. The Gothic Archies is a musical project of Stephin Merritt, the songwriter best known for his band the Magnetic Fields. The album, entitled The Tragic Treasury, features music originally recorded for the audiobooks of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Tragic Treasury contains 13 songs corresponding to the 13 books in the series, with two additional bonus tracks also inspired by the series. All music is performed by the Gothic Archies, with Lemony Snicket accompanying on accordion. The Tragic Treasury is being released October 10, 2006, in conjunction with the final Lemony Snicket book, The End.

Amazon.com
Children's discs, like cartoons, sometimes work on a couple of different levels, but those levels are usually predictable--the pop-culture reference that flies over a slack-jawed fourth grader's head while garnering a chuckle from her parent, for example, or the double-entendre that's decidedly singular in the eyes of a 6-year-old child. The Tragic Treasury, the companion disc to Daniel Handler's creepily addictive Lemony Snicket series of books, is in a whole different league: 11-year-olds and the adults who hover over them, waiting for their own chance to devour each title, will love its verisimilitude--songs like "Scream and Run Away" and "Smile! No One Cares How You Feel" couldn't have been concocted for anything else--and indie-rock types, be they 19 or 62, will love its drearily exceptional hipness. Whether you know your grim grottos from your vile villages and hostile hospitals (all Snicket titles) couldn't matter less: if artful gloom-leaning pop grabs you, this disc gives up the goods, and of a quality you won't find anywhere else besides a handful of less-inspired Gothic Archies releases. As most non-Snicketeers inclined to pick up The Tragic Treasury know, Stephen Merritt--he of the equally excellent Magnetic Fields--is responsible; a few accordion contributions from Handler himself aside, he alone is the merry Goth man. He also writes a mean lyric, and luckily for Snicket loyalists, they're included in liner notes here. --Tammy La Gorce

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly good fun.
I purchased this for my son who is into the series and I didnt expect much.
This is so totally funny. It is done by the author and his "goth band".
The music is catching and the lyrics will make you laugh.
This one will be heard over and over again.

Awesome ^__^
This is the 2ed collest CD I've ever heard, second only to American McGee's Alice soundtrack, (sort of) by Nine Inch Nails. Both are one of those "once in a life time" "you'll never find anything like it again" "you want more but it's not going to happen" unique things in life. I can listen to them endlessly & never get sick of them. & best of all; no love songs, well there's a "lost love" song, but the lack of love songs is the other thing becides the vocals & music that make this album stand-out as original & unique.

Shipwrecked is probably the funniest song I've ever heard & you really don't see it comming the first time you hear it. This Abyss is just beautiful.

It manages to remind me of "They Might Be Giants," "Bobby Boris Pickett," & "Ray Stevens," without actually sounding like them. It also has a very 80s sound to it without actually being 80s.

The one thing I didn't like though, was that thwe songs are all radio-sized instead of full-length (as in less than 5 min each).

Scream, but don't run away
For children of any age, the album should be approached with caution and family listening. One track, "Freakshow," was not included on the audio books, and it is clear to us why this is so; regardless of the character being portrayed from the Lemony Snicket books, the song is a bit of genius that, to the ears of children, could border on verbal abuse. (The impact of the second-person "you" on young listeners should not be underestimated.) But if you have pre-teens seeking gothic drama and dark, funny music that sounds like it was recorded inside the broken iron heart of a crippled 19th-century automaton, The Tragic Treasury will have them swooning. For its music alone and for its willingness to touch on taboo topics, the album can charm even young children, so judicious selections can be fun for families with a dark sense of humor. Our three-year-old daughter Z, for her part, enjoys marching around the room to the chorus of "Scream and Run Away" - "Run, run-run-run-run-run-run-run, or die, die-die-die-die-die-die-die-die..." No, really, it's okay... Who am I kidding? You just have to hear it.

Top Tracks: Scream and Run Away / In the Reptile Room / This Abyss / Crows / Freakshow / Walking My Gargoyle