Tear Jerker / Evelyn Evelyn

• Basically the Evelyns' entire childhood. They were isolated, shunned, alienated, exploited and excluded all their life. The only friends they ever had were taken away from them. It says a lot that living in a chicken coop was most likely the highlight of their early years.
• A deep underlying sense of depression and self-hatred runs throughout the whole album, best expressed by the absolutely somber tone of "Evelyn Evelyn", the overture for the album.
  "This is our birthday, so why are we weeping?"
• As they're trapped inside the chicken cage following the chicken farmer's death, they're forced to watch their chicken friends - the only other living creatures they've ever seen in their lives, aside from the farmer, who doesn't do any more to care for them than feed them his usual blend of chicken food - starve to death inside the steaming hot coop, while they themselves are close to dying of hunger and thirst and fearing for their life.
• 'Sandy Fishnets' tells the story of a little girl named Sandy, the twin's only human friend, starting from when the Evelyns first met her, when the most sought after prostitute at the brothel, to her disappearance. While this song may trigger a paedophilia squick (there's no graphic detail in that arena, but just enough for the listener to get the idea), it's also just heartbreaking. The bridge especially can bring one to tears - don't listen to it after the death of a loved one:
  "And will she be soaring over the sea
  With the wind in her sails and a knife in her teeth
  At the helm of a ship on its way to a distant shore?
  Bermuda or Thailand, an uncharted island?
  Sandy, we're all getting older.
  What will they do with us
  When they are through with us?
  Sandy, what are we sailing for?"
• 'A Campaign Of Shock And Awe' is pretty grim, despite how upbeat the music is. We hear snippets of three points in the Evelyns' lives, and it gives us insight into just how horrible their conditions are (except for the music store, near the end.)
  • Firstly, the barkers at the carnival are advertising them as being 'revolting', 'a freak of nature' and 'a blunder of God'. Ouch.
  • Even worse is their stay at the lodge, where it is implied that the proprietors are selling them to gentlemen with... unique tastes.
  • What's even worse than this? Judging by the Evelyns' reactions to all this in the song, which presumably reflects their thoughts at the time, they don't realize they're being horribly mistreated, and instead believe that everyone is being nice to them. Luckily, they seem to have enough self-awareness as adults to include this subtext consciously.
• 'Evelyn Evelyn' is an incredibly emotional song, especially after the sisters begin to argue. One is fed up with her inability to have any sort of privacy, while the other wants to stay together - what else do they have, if not each other?
• The conversations they have with each other during 'Tragic Events'.
  "Are you crying, Evelyn?"
• "You Only Want Me 'Cause You Want My Sister" gives us a very grim look into the girl's inner life. While its plot is obviously fictionalized, it reveals that the girls desperately long for a life on their own, seperate from each other. They go as far as to indulge in murder fantasies... only to conclude on how much they miss each other.
  It pains my heart to think of her
  A rotting, stinking, maggot-infested, bloated, and pus-oozing corpse beneath the earth
  You can’t imagine just how much I miss her
  But now I know you want me, not my sister
• The poor, shy sisters have not had a lot of practice with social skills, and even as adults find it difficult to talk to people. It gets even worse when one considers their stay at the Don't Tell Motel, where, in 'Tragic Events Part Three' they attempt to socialize with the women working there (i.e. prostitutes) only to be shunned, scorned, and called a 'thing' by the others.
  • It's notable that, even after being locked in a chicken coop and isolated from all of humanity, and being commodified in a pedophile ring and a freakshow, this is the point in their life where they feel the loneliest.
• The twins, whose few friends in their life have been painfully taken away from them, fantasizing about the numbers of fans they'll have on the internet:
  "Just think of all the friends we're going to have, Evelyn!"
  - "Thousands. Thousands and thousands of friends, Evelyn."
  "I'm so excited, Evelyn..."