Two years after Bachelor No. 2, Aimee Mann released her second album on her Superego label, 2002’s Lost in Space. The record is unofficially a concept album exploring self-destructive behavior of all sorts — the perfect Christmas gift for your favorite messed-up friend.
Typical lyric: “Get out while you can, baby, I’m pouring quicksand and sinking is all I had planned.” And: “You paint a lovely picture but reality intrudes with a message for you… and it’s real bad news.” And: “Nothing fuels a good flirtation like need and anger and desperation.”
But despite the downbeat subject matter, Lost in Space is a terrific sounding album and the favorite of many Aimee Mann fans. I rank it a bit below Bachelor No. 2 because it lacks that album’s variety but it’s certainly a worthy achievement.
Today’s Song of the Day, ‘It’s Not,’ is the final track on the album and maybe the most depressing. It ties together a lot of the album’s themes and imagery, including a reference to the title song, and ends on a seriously downbeat note: “I believe it’s you who could make it better… though it’s not.” Not only is this person caught in a downward spiral, she is clinging to the false hope of redemption on the way down. Yikes.
A wire travels underground to a vacant lot
Where something I can’t see interrupts the current
And shrinks the picture down to a tiny dot
And from behind the screen it can look so perfect
But it’s not
So here I’m sitting in my car at the same old stop light
I keep waiting for a change but I don’t know what
So red turns into green turning into yellow
But I’m just frozen here on the same old spot
And all I have to do is to press the pedal
But I’m not
People are tricky you can’t afford to show
Anything risky, anything they don’t know
The moment you try – well kiss it goodbye
So baby kiss me like a drug, like a respirator
And let me fall into the dream of the astronaut
Where I get lost in space that goes on forever
And you make all the rest just an afterthought
And I believe it’s you who could make it better
Though it’s not
No it’s not
No it’s not
Meet Me In Montauk 
So why is Mann so down? Issues with Penn?
I really do love Mann’s sound, but I must admit that there is a certain melancholy sameness to a great deal of her music. This song is, like her others, beautiful, but, for me, not all that distinguishable.
I don’t disagree with that, although it’s a sound I really love so sameness isn’t a big deal for me. She has done her share of rocking out as well, but I’ve been focusing on the more somber stuff.
And I don’t know if she is personally down so much as she likes exploring those emotions. Everything I’ve heard about her personal life (admittedly not a whole lot) suggests that she’s an upbeat person, in contrast to, say, Elliott Smith, whose somber music was really a cry for help.
Maybe she’s writing on behalf of her sister-in-law? Sounds like Robin might have been thinking some of these thougths.