Aimee Mann


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Aimee Mann
Lost in Space [Bonus Disc]
Release Date: 2002 08 27
Label: Superego
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It is, in a sense, a trick of the times that Lost in Space conveys such a vivid visual quality; thanks to the high profile given to her music on the Magnolia soundtrack, it's now impossible to miss the narrative strength of Aimee Mann's writing. The mood throughout this album is autumnal, with filmy keyboard beds and expressive shifts between major and minor enhancing the subdued eloquence of her lyrics. (A major chord at the end of "Guys Like Me" offers an ironic twist on the smug portraiture that precedes it.) Though recorded free of the legal snarls that plagued most of her previous albums, Lost in Space seems to be mainly about alienation and, at least as a metaphor, addiction. The latter point is made clear in "This Is How It Goes," with its assertions that "it's all about drugs, it's all about shame." But it's clear as well when Mann offers to "be your heroine" -- or is it heroin? -- amidst slithering slide guitars and rainy gray textures on "High on Sunday 51," or confesses to seeking salvation where "It's Not." Recorded largely in Ryan Freeland's home studio, some of these songs receive discreet electronic treatments -- moments of abstract noise whose application always enhances the otherwise low-tech arrangements. For all the shadows that stretch across Lost in Space, what lingers in the wake of this music is the realization that Mann remains spectacularly underrated among contemporary songwriters; no one surpasses her as a master of poetic regret, and few albums examine the peculiar beauty of depression with the skill she brings to Lost in Space. [A little over a year after the release of Lost in Space, the album was reissued in a elaborate limited-edition, packaged as a mini-book and containing a ten-track second disc. Half of this is live, including five live versions of songs from the 11-track album, and then two B-sides that could have fit on the album -- "Nightmare Girl" and "Backfire" -- and two okay previously unreleased songs, "Fighting the Stall" and "Observatory."] Robert L. Doerschuk, All Music Guide

Tracks:
TitleComposerTime
1Humpty DumptyMann4:01
2High on Sunday 51Mann, Dalen3:15
3Lost in SpaceMann3:28
4This Is How It GoesMann3:47
5Guys Like MeMann3:12
6Pavlov's BellMann4:27
7Real Bad NewsMann3:53
8Invisible InkMann, Scoble4:59
9Today's the DayMann4:42
10MothMann3:46
11It's NotMann3:27
12Real Bad News [Live]Mann
13Moth [Live]Mann
14This Is How It Goes [Live]Mann
15Scientist [Live]Martin, Champion, Berryman, Buckland
16Invisible Ink [Live]Mann
17Nightmare Girl [B-Side]Penn, Brion, Mann
18Backfire [B-Side]Brion, Mann
19Fighting the Stall [#]Mann
20Observatory [#]Mann, Tilbrook
21It's Not [BBC]Mann
22Pavlov's Bell [Multimedia Track]Mann







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