I had a weekend entertaining my
mom and brother (happy Mother’s Day, mom!). It was fun showing them around my
home town but all that socializing has me a bit knackered.
Fortunately, I had a pretty
positive day for a Monday and the week ahead is full of both social events and
work challenges. I’m looking forward to both!
Disc 864 is….Voices Carry
Artist: ‘til
Tuesday
Year of Release: 1985
What’s up with the Cover? These four look like they stepped
out of 1985, but that’s because they did. Aimee Mann now has long straight
hair, so it is fun to see her funky eighties haircut, as well as that mix of
apprehension and excitement on her face.
How I Came To Know It: I grew up with the song “Voices
Carry” but never owned the album (my brother had it on vinyl and Sheila had it
on cassette, however). I think I may have bought this for Sheila as a gift. I
had a few years there where I mistakenly thought she wanted to revisit all her
favourite eighties albums. I’ve since recovered.
How It Stacks Up: ‘til Tuesday made three albums, but like most
people I only have this one so there is no stacking up to be done. I have all
eight of Aimee Mann’s solo albums but again, this is not a straight
comparison.
Ratings: 2 stars
I’m not a fan of eighties production, and ‘til
Tuesday’s debut album, “Voices Carry” did nothing to convince me otherwise.
Instead, it almost convinced me of the value in downloading single songs
instead of owning a CD just to own one track. Almost.
The production on this record is truly painful. Drum
machines panck away in robotic fashion and a synthesizer drones throughout.
Every now and then you hear a bass that sounds relatively organic (that’s Aimee
Mann playing) but those moments are rare. The lead guitar is practically
non-existent, or so overproduced you can’t tell for sure if it is even a
guitar. At times I think it might have been a key-tar, but I can’t prove it.
Some albums are so perfectly suited to eighties production
that it makes the album even better (like the Cars’ debut and some have
songs so powerful they overcome the production decisions (like Springsteeen’s “Tunnel of Love”). “Voices Carry” manages neither. The arrangements are done in New
Wave style, but are far too pop-sweet to have to jarring impact New Wave should
have. The songs themselves aren’t terrible, but they don’t have what it takes
to rise above the mess of synth and drum machine they are buried under.
Lyrically, this record didn’t engage me either. “Love in a Vacuum” is supposed to be a
song about a one-sided relationship. Instead, I couldn’t stop imagining it as
an upcoming Pixar movie about a bunch of animated dust-motes inside a vacuum
cleaner.
Because, let’s face it, this album is all about the
title track. “Voices Carry” is a
great song, with a chugging guitar riff and pretty hook that has withstood the
test of time. Everything that makes large swathes of this record fail, function
beautifully on this song. Mann’s voice is waifish, but it sounds vulnerable and
sweet here, not affected. The synthesizer is unearthly and even a little
majestic, rather than artificial. This song is a winner, so much so that ‘til
Tuesday is fated to be remembered only for it. If you have to be a one-hit
wonder, this is a fine track to have as your legacy.
There are a couple of other OK songs that also
appealed to me. “You Know the Rest” is
all about the synth, but makes it work in a “Clannad meets Belinda Carlisle”
kind of way. “Sleep” is the final
track on the album and manages to draw me into an emotional connection. It is still
very eighties, but has a genuine feeling of loss about it that shines through.
Springsteen would be proud, even if it came a bit too late.
Aimee Mann is one of my favourite pop artists these
days, and over the past twenty years she has released some of the greatest (and
most woefully underappreciated) pop albums ever made. On “Voices Carry” she is
still finding her style. Maybe it is revisionist history, but it feels like her
talents are trapped in the confines of ‘til Tuesday’s style, and it doesn’t
suit her. Lucky for all of us she went on to have an amazing career. Even this first
effort has its moments, and is worth keeping in the collection.
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