Aimee Mann Raises "Arm"

Aimee Mann will release The Forgotten Arm, her fifth album, on May 3rd. The concept album follows the story of a boxer and his girlfriend as they fall in love and road trip across America.

"It takes place in the early Seventies just before the end of the Vietnam War," Mann told Rolling Stone in September about the disc, which she was then calling King of the Jailhouse after a track of the same name. "There's two people dating, and the guy gets sent over to Vietnam briefly and comes back and has a drug problem. The last record was about addiction, and this record is about recovery."

The twelve track sonic "novella" was produced by singer-songwriter Joe Henry. Musically, The Forgotten Arm maintains its Seventies feel with the intersection of warm guitars and keyboards. "Dear John," the opening track, features a flinty guitar riff and piano is prominent on the lilting "I Can't Get My Head Around It" and the fragile-sounding "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart."

Mann and her band -- which includes Sheryl Crow's guitarist Jeff Trott, Julian Coryell on additional guitar, Jebin Bruni on keyboards, Paul Bryan on bass and drummers Victor Indrizzo and Jay Bellarose - recorded the album in just five days last summer, and Mann composed many of the songs on piano.

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

More Song Stories entries »

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