Shriek of the Week, Vol. 8

This week, I shriek a singer/songwriter who is truly sublime, Aimee Mann. While possibly best known as the voice of 'Til Tuesday, she has since worked hard to build a loyal following for her solo career, and won critical acclaim and accolades including an Oscar nod for her work on the Magnolia soundtrack. Her music nearly always tells a story and draws on complex emotional relationships that are just about the opposite of, say... anything in a Pussycat Dolls song. I shudder at the thought.

I was first introduced to the magic of Aimee Mann with her third solo release, Bachelor No. 2 or the last remains of the dodo. She released this album on her own, sold it through her web site until she had the ability to start her own label. Then came Lost In Space, a melancholy masterpiece wrapped in gorgeous packaging. Her most recent release, The Forgotten Arm, is essentially a rock opera about a fading boxer and his girlfriend and their fight through drug use and legal troubles.

I'd really have to include the lyrics for the entire songs to convey the true genius, but here are a few snippets from some of my favorites.

Bachelor No. 2 focuses on endings, largely of the unhappy variety, but without all the tears. She focuses on characters who see the flaws in those around them and can do nothing to stop them, except tell them what's wrong and move on:

From It Takes All Kinds:
"I'm surprised I even thought I had half a chance,
I was just one in a million of also-rans,
who was sure to be your victim of circumstance.
Once you were just our dear friend Ron,
selling the soul you swore upon,
spreading the word that you've become
what you hated."

From The Fall of the World's Own Optimist:
"Well, I could have objections
which you could override
But what's the point we're only flogging the horse when
the horseman has up and died."

And from the opening track, How Am I Different:
"And just one question before I pack -
When you fuck it up later do I get my money back?"

Such a great album. Even if you're not pissed off or dumping someone, the lyricism and the beauty of her voice and the arrangement just swallows you right up. I don't want to ruin them all, because you should really run right out and get them all right now, but be sure to check out Red Vines from Bachelor No. 2, This Is How It Goes, Invisible Ink and The Moth from Lost In Space, the entire Magnolia soundtrack, and her turn as a nine-toed nihilist in the Big Lebowski.