Tag Archives: Aimee Mann

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Song of the Day #1,203: ‘Superball’ – Aimee Mann

My examination of songs that utilize metaphors has brought me to an Aimee Mann track that is apparently despised by a significant percentage of her fans. I didn’t realize that until reading about it for this blog entry. I’m often surprised to find out which songs are either loved or hated by an artist’s fan base.

‘Superball’ certainly isn’t among my favorite Mann songs, but neither is it something I’d ever think of skipping when listening to her albums. Tucked between two slower songs on her 1995 record I’m With Stupid, the song works as an oddball pick-me-up.

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Song of the Day #1,145: ‘Ghost World’ – Aimee Mann

Best Songwriters – #9 – Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann is the artist on this list who earns the “most improved” designation. If you’d told me that the Mann of ‘Til Tuesday and her first solo album would grow into one of the most assured, mature and emotionally effective songwriters I know, I would have been highly skeptical.

But around the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, largely inspired by Mann’s music, her albums took a turn toward the sublime. Her Bachelor No. 2, which featured several of those Magnolia tracks, was confident, dramatic and stylistically diverse — a statement record by a woman nobody expected to make a statement.

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Song of the Day #979: ‘Thirty One Today’ – Aimee Mann

I never expect a favorite artist’s most recent album to be her best. When I count somebody among my favorites, it’s because something he released years ago made a huge impact on me. Maybe a band put out a string of excellent work in the early 90s, enough to cement them as legends, but after their heyday they settle into groove of sustained quality that falls just short of that peak.

I don’t think Elvis Costello will release a new album that I rank higher than the two or three I consider his finest. I’m sure R.E.M.’s best work is behind them, even though I’m excited as hell about their newest release. It’s reasonable to accept that musicians hit a high point and then spend the rest of their careers trying but never quite approaching it again.

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Song of the Day #491: ‘Medicine Wheel’ – Aimee Mann

smilersAimee Mann’s sixth album of original material, 2008’s @#%&*! Smilers, is her best work yet. It’s the first since Bachelor No. 2 to work as a simple collection of songs and not a concept album and perhaps it was that freedom that allowed her to produce such a consistently great record.

This is one of those albums that feels like it’s always one step ahead of you, taking unexpected turns that seem perfectly obvious in retrospect. It’s the rare album about which you can say “There isn’t a moment on this record I don’t love.”

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Song of the Day #490: ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ – Aimee Mann

drifterinthesnowHappy Thanksgiving, everyone! It’s appropriate, I suppose, that Aimee Mann’s discography positions her Christmas album, One More Drifter in the Snow, on this neighboring holiday.

Mann and Christmas might seem like an odd mix, but hearing her versions of the classics on this album it’s clear that both share an underlying mood of lovely melancholy. Songs such as ‘Christmas Song,’ ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ and ‘White Christmas’ are far from merry but they’re certainly evocative of the season. And so too is this album.

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