Aimee Mann did not have a very productive decade. She released Charmer in 2012, then a record paired up with alt-rocker Ted Leo in 2014, before wrapping things up with Mental Illness in 2017.
I can complain about the frequency, but not the content, especially Mental Illness, which ranks among the best releases of her career.
Hard to believe it’s already two years since Aimee Mann released her last album, the gorgeously melancholy Mental Illness. This was the sweetest, saddest Aimee Mann album an Aimee Mann fan could ever hope for.
Mann’s lyrics are always beautifully evocative even when they’re maddeningly inscrutable. Today’s SOTD, ‘Philly Sinks,’ appears to be about a man who abuses both alcohol and women, but that’s just a guess.
After a couple of disappointments by favorite artists, here’s an album by another favorite that met my high expectations.
As it happens, just about all of my favorite albums this year have been by women, with Aimee Mann’s Mental Illness vying for the top spot. Of course, when she promised her “saddest, slowest, most acoustic” album yet, I was destined to love it.
I’ve waited five long years since the last solo Aimee Mann album. She released an album with Ted Leo in 2014 under the moniker The Both, which was fine, but not the same. I’m stoked.
Even better, Mann told Rolling Stone that the new record, titled Mental Illness, promises to be her “saddest, slowest, most acoustic, if-they’re-all-waltzes-so-be-it-record.” That, my friends, is melancholy music to my ears.
