Aimee Mann

Female singer-songwriters fill me with horror. I am doubtless not the market for whiny, boring women who sing about how shit men are. So why do I love Aimee Mann, who, while not boring, is definitely willing to whine and has as her subject matter almost exclusively how shit men are?

I suppose the answer is simply that I gave her a chance. I had to, really. You can't escape from someone's music when they soundtrack a film. The film in question, Magnolia, has had mixed reviews (to say the least) but I really liked it. I particularly liked the music.

How couldn't you? What lost soul does not hear their story in Save me? And who does not know a woman like the subject of You do? This latter song is a big clue to Mann's appeal: it has the trifecta of a great tune, Mann's beautiful and distinctive voice and a wry lyric that shows off Mann's gift for the observational. These two songs, plus Wise up and Deathly, are enough for me to rate her highly. Most of this stuff is from the excellent Bachelor no.2 album, which came out around the same time (there is some story about Magnolia, something like PT Anderson heard the demos Mann was working on and liked them enough to say 'that's my soundtrack'). It also features my personal favourite Mann song, Ghost world. If you are going to sing about teen angst, this is the way to do it. Mann boots boring emo into touch with a lyric about how it looks to a teen who has muffed school and now doesn't know what to do with her life.

I'd love to be able to say that her other early albums, Whatever, I'm with stupid and Whatever are as good, and they're all decent, but none has the out and out quality of Bachelor, and none has the songs that really stand out for me. Mind you, I don't listen to them often, but when I do, I am reminded that they are very good albums. The quality is even, so you're not leaning on the skip button.

Her more recent material has been better in my opinion. Lost in space was another excellent album. The Mann template is in full effect: gentle midpaced rock (you could call them plodders) that gives space for her voice, full production (which gives her music a strong 70s feel), the love of Joni Mitchell that informs everything she does. The forgotten arm is, we're told, a concept album, but I've never listened to it closely enough to figure out the concept precisely. It's a character-driven thing though, a rock opera. But it's not as out of touch as that would suggest, and in That's how I knew this story would break my heart it has a track as good as any she has written, a beautifully affecting song that sounds exactly like heartbreak.

I think overall the reason I rate Mann and not other female songwriters is that she is just able to lift herself above the restrictions of the genre. There are tons of singers who make plodders with what they think are smart, observational lyrics. But few have any real idea how to write a decent tune or have voices that are anything but generic. Mann reminds me of the more reflective side of Paul Westerberg, and I think it makes more sense to compare her with him than with Jewel, say.

posted by Dr Zen @ 9:17 am