Ever After (Marianas Trench album)

Composition

After months of anticipation, Ramsay announced on Twitter that the album will be titled Ever After. The band announced that the album would be released on November 29, 2011, however this date was later pushed up to November 21. The band has announced that there will not be any breaks in between the tracks on the record, and will instead have a new track start as soon as the previous track ends, without a pause, making it an hour-long continuous piece of music. Production on the album had been taking place since Spring 2011.

Story Line

Ever After is a concept album, (as was Masterpiece Theatre). In addition to the fact that there is no pause between the tracks, Ever After also has a storyline told through the album's songs as well as its booklet. The story tells of a fictionalized Josh Ramsay and his adventures in the fantasy kingdom of Toyland.

Josh Ramsay meets the ex-King of Toyland upon his waking up in a strange land in front of a toy factory. The King tells Josh that he was overthrown by the his wife Queen Carolina, after seducing him into a feeling of safety. She then stole the heart of his daughter, Princess Porcelain (played by Canadian actress Olivia Ryan-Stern), which caused the king so much pain that he let Carolina take the throne. Carolina locks Porcelain's heart in a box atop a tower, which also holds various things she has also stolen; including Josh's way home. Carolina proceeded to steal the inhabitants' hearts, and build her army of heartless toy soldiers. After hearing this tale, Josh sets off in search of Porcelain and his way home.

Carolina then comes to Josh in the night, and attempts to bribe him into ruling Toyland with her. This meant Josh would never be able to go home. So he turns her down. When Josh comes to, he finds Porcelain, who is human as well. She has the key to the box around her neck. When asked why she isn't a toy like everyone else, she cannot remember. She couldn't remember anything that happened before her heart had been stolen. She explains that Carolina's soldiers have been stealing and locking away hearts without rebellion for some time. Josh and Porcelain then proceed to find the stuttering wise man, the one with the other half of the key.

Once they find the Stuttering Wise Man they discover that he is the brother of the Outcast King, and one of the few remaining inhabitants to have a heart. He explains that Porcelain showed up at the castle as a lost child and was adopted by the king. She is also from Josh's homeland.

The Stuttering Wise Man then leads the two into the factory that creates the heartless toy soldiers. The trio then plead with the heartless soldiers to work together and overthrow the Queen. They soon convince the soldiers to go along with their plan. The Outcast King charges into battle with the rebel soldiers, outnumbered, as Porcelain, the Stuttering Wise Man, and Josh go up to the tower where the box is held.

The Queen sees Josh and tries to brutally attack him. Porcelain and the Prince then open the box as the Queen attempts to steal Josh's heart. After a flash of light, Josh regains consciousness and hears joyful cheers from the courtyard below, and finds that they have defeated the Queen. However the Stuttering Prince is dead as the other half of the key had been his own heart. Porcelain throws Carolina off the tower to be swarmed by angry toy soldiers. The King retakes the throne and Porcelain and Josh go home, but find that after the adventure, it didn't feel like home, so the two return to the kingdom and live happily ever after.

Singles

The first single on the album, entitled "Haven't Had Enough" was released in July 2011, and reached the #1 spot on iTunes Canada Top of the Charts and Pop Downloads, and the song was named "Song of the Week" by The Tune. The music video for the song was released on August 26, 2011. "By Now" was released as a free download to people who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition of Ever After on iTunes. The second official single, "Fallout" was released to iTunes on November 15. The music video was released on February 2, 2012. The music video for their third single "Desperate Measures" was released on July 4, 2012. The fourth single was confirmed to be "Stutter" on November 6, 2012. Interestingly enough, although not playing the character of Princess Porcelain, actress Olivia Ryan-Stern was heavily featured in this video as well.The music video was released December 20, 2012. The most recent single is By Now. The music video was released on August 8, 2013.

Promotion

Through YouTube, the band has previewed recordings of a gospel choir for their song Stutter, as well as a few recordings from the band. The album cover was revealed on the band's Facebook page on October 17, 2011, and it features a series of toys on a shelf. The band has announced they will be touring in the United States on the Get Your Heart On! Tour with Simple Plan, Forever the Sickest Kids, and The Cab starting on October 25, 2011, in order to promote the album. They will also be touring in Canada with Simple Plan, All Time Low, and These Kids Wear Crowns starting on February 11, 2012. They also toured with The Ready Set, Allstar Weekend, and The Downtown Fiction in the 2011 Glamour Kills Tour.

Release

The album became available for full preview on the MuchMusic website a week before the release. The album was released on iTunes the morning of November 20. Hard copies of Ever After became available on November 21. Some stores such as Wal-Mart, are selling limited edition "Fan-packs" of Ever After that include a Marianas Trench T-shirt. As of December 2011, the album was certified gold in Canada for shipments of over 40,000 copies.

Track listing

All tracks written by Josh Ramsay.