Disc 54, where are you? Oh - right here. I guess you were lost temporarily...
Disc 54 is...Lost In Space
Artist: Aimee MannYear of Release: 2002
How I Came To Know It: I believe Sheila heard about Aimee Mann and this album in particular from an online friend a few years back.
How It Stacks Up: Since first hearing "Lost In Space" we've gone on to purchase all her solo albums, of which there are 6 (there might be a 7th, but is a Christmas album, so noooo thank you). I would put "Lost in Space" at the top of this list - tied for first probably with "The Forgotten Arm".
Rating: 4 stars.
For those who don't know, Aimee Mann is the former lead singer of the band "'Til Tuesday", which had a hit back in the 80s with "Voices Carry". Til Tuesday has 3 studio albums, and I've been diligently searching for them for a while without success. I don't anticipate they will be as good as Mann's solo work.
Aimee Mann is that rarest of beasts - good pop music. The arrangements are straight pop/rock, and there is no denying that. However, the songs are beautifully constructed, and about very adult subjects.
"Lost In Space" is an album that has a lot of imagery comparing drug addiction to love when the love is failing, but you're holding on to it anyway. It is pretty depressing stuff, which is a refreshing change for the usual vacuous offerings from pop music these days.
The first track on the album, "Humpty Dumpty" captures this feeling of being unable to repair something once beautiful. Following a couple of minor notes, Mann's ethereal and amazing voice leads us into our journey:
"Say you were split, you were split in fragments
And none of the pieces would talk to you
Wouldn't you want to be who you had been?
Well, baby I want that too.
"So better take the keys
And drive forever
Staying won't put these
Futures back together
All the perfect drugs
And superheroes
Wouldn't be enough
To bring me up to zero."
Ouch. Painful, but a nicely descriptive and evocative painful! Ah, art - making a painful experience of one person enjoyable to a bunch of others.
Many other tracks build on this idea of being unable to exit something you know is wrong for you. Pavlov's Bell sings about the learned reactions we know about from...er...Pavlov's Bell, and "The Moth" is a song about how a moth will burn its wings black and die before it will retreat from the flame that fascinates it.
This album comes very close to a concept album, except that each song clearly stands on its own. I don't think there are any bad tracks on here, and some are truly amazing like "Invisible Ink". Is this album worth 5 stars? Oh, so close. I'm going to hold out though, because I'm a hard marker (see sidebar).
When I am trying to get people hooked on Aimee Mann, this album is almost always where I start. Maybe I've got it for your birthday...hey, the first one's free, kid.
Best tracks: Many, including Humpty Dumpty, Lost In Space, This Is How It Goes, Pavlov's Bell, Invisible Ink
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