Music Review by Lou Wigdor Aimee, We Hardy Knew
You! |
![]() If the present CD could talk and had
the naivety to ask, “How am I different?,” even the “Get out while you can; I’m pouring quicksand,” she warns in track number one. Chances are, you’ll blow right past that early warning system to learn more about Ms. Mann and her addictive bonding behaviors—all cosmetic quick fixes that mask her underlying problem: her futile search for a psychic center—she’s lost in space. Ask yourself. Could you possibly succumb to these jaded come-ons?: “Let me be your heroin; hate the sinner but love the sin . . .” [High on Sunday 51] “So come on let’s go-ready or not; cause there’s a flame I know that’s hotter than hot; and with a fuse that’s so incredibly shot away” [The Moth] And my own personal favorite: “Kiss me like a drug; like a respirator” [It’s Not] “Buyer beware,” warns Aimee Mann. “Guys like me, we look good at the gate . . .looking warm but feeling chilly You’ll describe us as impassioned when it’s just a front we’ve fashioned.” A front that masks a divided, sometimes etherized sense of self. It’s all in the songs: “Say you were split, You were split
in fragments “And I’m pretending to care “I feel like a ghost What a startling a figure! James Merrill’s ghost must be reeling with multiple frissons. Anyway, while this album is essentially a field guide to Aimee, it’s also by extension an advisory to the codependent company that she keeps. “. . . I get lost in space that goes on forever And you make all the rest just an afterthought And I believe that it’s you who could make it better. No, it’s not. No it’s not.” [It’s Not] “And baby—Isn’t it enough. . .isn’t this your chance, to make a break with circumstance? Isn’t it enough, to prove today’s the day?” [Today’s the Day] Once again, the answer is: No, it’s not. Leaving is a problem for these guys. They are Lost in Space as well—by one degree of separation. Not the music though. Lost in Space is as musically striking a recording as I’ve heard this year. It builds on Bachelor’s successful sonic universe (see above), adding subtle string embellishments that evoke a touch of melancholy and more than a touch of resignation. When it wants to, it can rock in that euphonious post-Abbey Road soundscape, but its melodic, dynamic, and textural range and vocabulary-reflecting their subject matter-are far more varied and nuanced. The music then is successful where
the woman is not. Its organic,
aesthetic |
|
©2002 by Lou Wigdor. |
Hosted by Pioneer Valley Folklore Society |