"Truly Madly Fairytales" by Edward Cullen is Truly Magical Indeed

A warm and inviting set of songs, primarily using and relying on the humble piano as a bridge to deliver these concepts and lines in the best way possible. That is what “Truly Madly Fairytales” by Edward Cullen is about.

The piano and vocals match each other perfectly, not one element trampling over the other, creating peaceful coexistence amidst the wonder and beauty between the lines of each track present in this album. It starts and ends with a brief dialogue, welcoming and bidding farewell to the listeners, with a tone of appreciation for their stay.

As the title and forewarning in “Prologue (Looking for the Answer to It All, Pt.1)”, most of the songs are heavily inspired, if not based on classic tales that most people have grown up with and loved for so many years.

In the song “Icarus”, which is self-explanatory to those familiar with his story, is narrated in what seems to be Icarus’ point of view, leading to a more assumptive perspective of what happened to him up there: “Maybe his wings just came undone”. Next comes “Rapunzel Stay Beautiful”, another familiar one for the masses – it seems to tell the story in a different way, without straying too much. “Stay beautiful, and open up your eyes / to the sadness of our two separate lives” – through lines like this one, it’s similar to those songs belonging in musical adaptations, granting the ones explicitly about a foretold fairytale the potential for that opportunity.

“Mirror Mirror” both include singing and dialogue as well, not beating the musical adaptation potential. So far, these tracks never fail to create new lines about the tales, and it’s honest work: “There’s no reflection on my wall / there’s no meaning to it all”. Moreover, “Cinderella and the Pious Prince (Pt.2)” does not stray from the inspiration as well, as seen on short lines such as “is it time to wake up now?”, and “why can’t life be like it is in my dreams? full of magic, wonder…” Although it is mostly an instrumental track, featuring the piano, guitar, and what sounds like flute.

There are also songs that need a bit more familiarity – if you’re not a fan of most, if not all fairytales, you might not get these right off the bat (including myself). But, they are still great and well-curated songs. “Rosebud” narrates and reflects on the personal experience of having no one: “Still I need a friend at night / when it’s dark and the voices bites / and my soul on and on, this can’t be right”, “I need to see you / I can’t make it on my own / let’s cross this world together / until we find a home”. It’s about longing for a companion, gently persuading someone to be one of theirs.

On the other hand, there are three songs connected to each other in this album. First is “Salt over Gold (Part 1)”, which speaks on something about familial conflict, and weighing the value between salt and gold as well as love, and the question of “how much do you love me?”, and the line of “help me fill this hole inside my heart”. “Song of Water”, acting as the mediator for the previous and next tracks, is a narration over piano background about the importance and impact of words: “Words are binding, words are rock and stone, poison, healer / which words do we own?”. Lastly, “Salt over Gold (Part 2)” follows the words relayed by the previous two songs, and consists of lyric changes as well: “your love has filled this hole inside my heart”.

The last remaining songs are more existential than the rest; for instance, “A Very Happy Ending?” really makes you question if things will end happily or not, but in essence, the track itself talks about heartbreak and unfulfilled dreams it seems. It runs deep, consisting of the following lines: “The question keeps returning to my head / is this life? or is this death? / and I haven’t found the answer yet”. Meanwhile, “Getting on and Getting By”’s title speaks for itself, as it’s about growing up and looking for meaning, and back at a lost time. The rhythm is pretty tame for this one, including light synth and spoken poetry similar to “Song of Water”.

Finally, the last track of “Epilogue (Looking for the Answer to It All, Pt.2)” acts as Edward Cullen’s reflection on the art imparted by him to the listeners, that include concepts of “times of old and times yet to come”. This album is truly beautiful, the ambience is calming than ever, and the vocals are perfect with how everything seems to be told like a story.