blackleatherbookshelf | Entries tagged with aimee mann

Roll me like a dollar bill
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Aimee Mann does something of a return to form after the concept album of "The Forgotten Arm" as she spends a rueful 13 songs that take aim at the "@#%&;*! Smilers" of the world. It's a collection of piano driven songs made alive by Mann's voice, tying the observations together. It's a collection of songs this time minus a concept, with Mann's snarky worldview punctuated by horns ("Borrowing Time") a new wavish recall of her 80's days ("Freeway") and a woozy barroom duet with Sean Hayes ("Ballantines"). While nothing here pops (in fact, my sole complaint is that the sound of the album tends to the homogenous side), every song unfolds its charm after repeated plays.

That is usually the case with most Mann albums, since she's more an accomplished lyricist than rocker. Subtlety is her biggest strength, and that is on full display on "Smilers." She gets that life is a series of often confusing and confused people in relationships that reflect that confusedness. On "31 Today," she wonders why her life isn't better than the way it's turned out as a new decade of life begins. Or how the disconnected junkie who comes to California to turn over a new leaf in "Freeway" is unknowingly walking into the lion's den. Then there's the fighting couple in "Medicine Wheel" who could have come straight out of "The Forgotten Arm's" codependent pairing.

It's those kind of characters and the consistency of Mann's albums that makes the curse of the CD's title something of an inside joke. The album is smoother than most of her regular work, and there's nothing angry more than grousing. "@#%;*! Smilers" delivers what Mann's fans have come to expect per albums like "I'm With Stupid" and "Lost In Space," and that's excellent songwriting with pleasures that grow thw more you lat the album play through the days.

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He Wants Me, If Only Part of The Time
4 Out Of 5 Stars

That brilliant line came from Til Tuesday's biggest hit, "Voices Carry," and is likely the song most folks recall the band by. It also launched both the band and their lead singer/songwriter, Aimee Mann. While Mann has since embarked on a critically acclaimed career as a solo singer/songwriter, "Coming Up Close: A Retrospective" both follows the breif, three album arc of Til Tuesday and shows Mann's evolution.

"Voices Carry," both the single and first album, was typical of the MTV 80's. Synth and drum heavy, the photogenic Mann quickly struck a chord as the girl in the video to stand up in the opera scene to scream at her creep boyfriend. The songs "Love In A Vacuum" and "Looking Over My Shoulder" (which peaked at 61 on Billboard but oddly is left off this set) followed in the same vein.

While the band was set for a successful follow-up, Mann's songwriting had begun to shift into a more personal direction, as well as losing the funky new-wave style. "Welcome Home" was a great album, but lack of a "Voices Carry" clone lead many to peg the band as one-hit wonders. The stinging "What About Love" did manage to peak at 26, but the song "Coming Up Close," a terrific song about the twilight of a relationship, stalled at 59. There's also a taste of the quirkier points of her solo career with "Will She Just Fall Done," a poppy song about a dysfunctional girlfriend.

The rest of the band was feeling left out by the start of the third album, "Everything's Different Now." Only Mann and Drummer Michael Hausman with session players, it's basically Mann's first solo album and is partially about her breakup with songwriter Jules Shear (who co-wrote the title track). It included a collaboration with Elvis Costello on "The Other End of The Telescope" and Til Tuesday's last charting single, "Believed You Were Lucky" (a censored version, which completely changed the tome of the song) that peaked at 95. "Everything's Different Now" officially embarked Mann on her pop-folk voyage, as well as a legal battle that held up her solo recordings for another seven years.

"Coming Up Close" finishes out with an unreleased track by the original band called "Do It Again," with no other info about its origins. It's a pretty good song, but that was it for any reunions since Mann has been touring and recording steadily since. Overall, since only the debut remains in print, this retrospective is a worthy overview of a band whose output has been long overlooked.