Aimee Mann is
best known for her voice, which is instantly recognizable by anyone who has
been listening to music for the past two decades. Her songs have appeared in
many films and television series on account of their emotional lyrics and
catchy hooks. With her latest album
titled Charmer, Mann delivers on past
promises of sorrow as she almost always does in her albums. Crooning alongside her for one song on the
album is The Shins frontman James
Mercer. The pairing does indeed produce excellent harmonies in their shared
track Living a Lie, which makes one
wonder why the last The Shins album
was so underwhelming. Perhaps Mercer
needs a Mann like force in his musical life to inject some much needed
melancholy because, as always, Mann’s songs are bursting with stories of
misfortune.
It might be an odd thing to point out but, Mann seems to
have a bit of a thing for dogs, or at least songs that have canine imagery.
Back in 2002 with her Lost in Space
album she had Pavlvo’s Bell, a song
about being trained to need something (in this case drugs) and the title itself
refers to the famous Pavlov’s Bell
experiment conducted with dogs and of course a bell. Now, with Mann’s latest
album we have the track Labrador
which is less about carrying out acts compulsively and more about being a good
little pet and an emotional footstool.
Oddly, both songs are among the strongest on their respective
albums. No Aimee Mann album would be complete without a truly depressing track
that somehow manages to make you feel better about your own life and for that
look no further than Barfly.
Aimee Mann isn’t
getting any better at making music and that’s not necessarily a bad thing to
say. She isn’t getting any better because she doesn’t need to, Mann has been at
the top of her game for years and she doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of
slowing down.
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