Album Reviews
View
On her best albums, Aimee Mann has earned a rep as the Raymond Carver of pop: author of precisely observed tales in which broken characters arrive at quiet epiphanies. So after 2005's mixed bag, The Forgotten Arm, a concept album about a Vietnam vet who takes his girlfriend on a cross-country road trip, she's returned to surer ground: @#%&*! Smilers finds her singing organ- and string-laden pop songs about a speed addict cruising the 405 for a fix ("Freeway"), a former hometown hero who's worn out his welcome ("Ballantines") and a scorned lover on the run ("Phoenix"). Mann portrays her subjects with the wan detachment of an omniscient narrator, and the sunny arrangements contrast with her even-keel alto, as well as her worldview. "You'll call it fate/When you show up too late/And it's over," she sings on the sweeping waltz "It's Over," the gravity of that verdict undercutting a lilting, Harry Nilsson-style piano riff. On the semiautobiographical "31 Today," Mann looks back on her days as a struggling musician in Boston. "I thought my life would be better by now," she sings over a buzzing Wurlitzer. With an album this vividly rendered, how could it not be?
Share
Email
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!
Advertisement
News and Reviews
Advertisement
Your Turn
Review 1 of 1
waldodio writes:
I swear I think Aimee Mann's songwriting just gets better with time. This album is a gem. Thank goodness her voice has carried from the 80's to today.
Jun 28, 2008 14:08:18
Previous Next
Advertisement
More CD Reviews
-
B.B. King
One Kind Favor -
The Verve
Forth -
Mott the Hoople
Old Records Never Die -
Solange Knowles
Sol-Angel & The Hadley St. Dreams -
The Academy Is. . .
Fast Times At Barrington High -
Brian Eno
Everything that Happens Will Happen Today -
Ra Ra Riot
The Rhumb Line -
The Dandy Warhols
Earth To The Dandy Warhols -
Death Vessel
Nothing is Precious Enough For Us -
Ice Cube
Raw Footage
©RealNetworks, Inc. All rights reserved.
©Copyright 2008 Rolling Stone
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
Get RS Mobile
RSS
