Today's song is "Time Stand Still", music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson; lyrics by Neal Peart. Produced and arranged by Peter Collins and Rush. Performed by Rush with Aimee Mann. Engineered by Jimbo Barton. Geddy Lee: vocals,bass, synthesizer, pedal board Alex Lifeson: guitars Neal Peart: drums, percussion and programming Aimee Mann: vocals Note: the band had initially wanted Cyndi Lauper to sing on this; but she declined; their second choice was Chrissie Hynde: too busy. Aimee Mann was paid $2000 for her vocal contribution.
While I'm not planning on holding the following songs up for a vote, Aimee Mann actually sang back-up on a few other songs in this era.... Including..."True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper:
"Time Stand Still" is one of those Rush songs that non-fans (like me) can still enjoy. Good pop center but still some stellar playing that people like. 3.4/5 That video though. I much prefer the Cyndi Lauper song but I don't really feel Aimee's part is nearly prominent enough to rate separately; more prominent in the Matthew Sweet song (which vaguely annoys me for some reason, even though I feel it's the "coolest"song of three.)
Time Stand Still is how i discovered Aimee. Being a big Rush fan from the mid to late 70s i was surprised to find that they had used an "outside" musician. You can count on the fingers of 1 hand how many times they've done this for their own studio releases and even then, they are not singers. As a Rush fan this is probably a 4.8/5. The song still sounds good today even with the dated production but the song's theme is timeless, pun very much intended.
Tomorrow I'll start holding songs up from Everything's Different Now. AS we've mentioned a few times, Welcome Home was a bit of disappointment for both the band and Epic. While it was a critical success, its singles had failed to make the huge impact on the charts that "Voices Carry" had made and, although it went gold in the US, it still sold a hundred thousand units fewer than Voices Carry. To me the fact that it still managed to sell half a million copies indicates that they had a solid fan base that was willing to follow them and could be built upon. But Epic Records didn't see it that way. There seems to have been a shake-up at the company, with executives who were sympathetic to 'Til Tuesday leaving for other companies, while new folks were ushered in, something which seems to happen every five years or so in the American record industry. The new execs basically regarded the band as washed up. Furthermore, as often happens, the lack of success took its toll on the band; while the record companies were blaming the band, the band were blaming each other, and specifically the growing musical awkardness of the poppy synth-heavy arrangements with Aimee's developing singer-songwriter style. There also may have been an element of ego clash: Pesce, as the most visible "good-looking" member had featured heavily in the bands videos and also had more song-writing credits than the others. He may have felt unfulfilled by his role the Aimee-dominated band. After the tour, keyboardest Joey Pesce left the band and was replaced by Michael Montes. Sometime in 1987, Aimee's relationship to songwriter Jules Shear came to an end because "he couldn't make up his mind." This inspired a set of songs from Aimee (written alone or with various co-writers, including Hausman, Shear, Kit Hain and Elvis Costello) that many critics hailed as her best yet. However, the aformentioned shake-up of the record company was devastating. The new executives in charge, focused on pop superstar Michael Jackson, who was preparing his blockbuster follow-up to Thriller, Bad, told the band that they needed to go back to record more; that the song lacked a "lead-off single"and that they would not promote it as is. In the first case of many such confrontations in her career, Aimee refused to back down and wanted the album released as it was. According to Aimee, the executives hadn't even listened to the record before telling the band that it wasn't finished. The record company also wanted to market the band to the emerging alternative market; Aimee did not like that, seeing herself as a commercial artist, not a "left of center" type. There seems to have been a period of stalemate, but Aimee stuck to her guns and the Everything's Different Now was finally released, towards end of 1988, I assume. By the time the album was released, however the situation had become so unbearable that guitarist Robert Holmes had also left the band, though he played on the record. The band did a short promo tour at the end of 1988, making appearances on Late Night with David Letterman which helped the album on the charts. However the album peaked at a very disappointing 124, spending 19 weeks in the Top 200 in all. The band belatedly began a short-ish American tour several months later (presumably there was an interim period while they searched for a replacement for Robert Holmes. Among the side-men they hired was Jon Brion, a New Jersey native and multi-instrumentalist who would impact Aimee's songs over the next decade more profoundly than Pescen and Holmes ever had. Aimee and Michael would continue to tour under the 'Til Tuesday banner for the next four years, and it's said a fourth album was recorded for Epic...but more of that when we get to the next album. The tracklist of Everything's Different Now was: Everything's Different Now (Jules Shear, Matthew Sweet) R.I.P. In Heaven (Aimee Mann, Kit Hain) Why Must I (Mann) J For Jules (Mann) (Believed You Were) Lucky (Mann, Shear) Limits To Love (Mann) Long Gone (Buddy) (Mann, Michael Hausman) The Other End (of the Telescope) (Mann, Declan MacManus) Crash and Burn (Mann, Hain) How Can You Give Up? (Mann, Hausman) There doesn't seem to have been any non-album B-sides from this, I don't think there were any on record appearances from Aimee Mann in this era...really after the release of Welcome Home she basically disappeared for five years. I have a large number of extra-album tracks from the "Whatever" era. If anybody knows of any tracks featuring Aimee on prominent lead/co-lead vocals or written by her from 1988-1991, please let me know. If not then, I'll start holding songs from Aimee's first solo album "Whatever", on the 14th of April.
Never liked Rush at all, Aimee’s vocal is a beautiful accent on a song I can’t really appreciate, the video is seriously distracting and I don’t care to hear it twice to listen with my eyes closed, so I won’t rate it. I agree her contribution to Cindy’s song isn’t enough to rate, and a minute was enough of the Matthew Sweet track for me so no rating there either. Looking forward to Everything’s Different Now
I’m not a huge Rush fan. I think I have 3 of their albums I’ll very occasionally put on. From what I’ve read, they’re also (or were in the case of Neil) very fine people. I do like this song, and Aimee’s added vocals (the “beautiful accents” that @groovelocked referred to) make it a lot more appealing to these ears. I personally can’t imagine either Lauper or Chrissy having a similar positive effect in the same way. Probably would have been different vocal accents to play to their own unique strengths, but I think Aimee is perfect here. 4/5 And FWIW, I’m VERY much looking forward to all the songs from here to the end.
Here's what I wrote about "Time Stand Still" on the recent Rush album-by-album thread: "Time Stand Still" is probably my favorite Rush song. Loved it from the moment I heard it as a 21 year old (with a much older soul). Everything about the song is perfect, from the wistful, melancholic lyrics to Alex's guitar picking to Geddy's vocal, which starts out softly and gains urgency as the song flows onward. Aimee Mann's haunting vocal in the background is lovely and provides the song with an aura of ethereal timelessness. At the time, I only really knew of her as the 'til Tuesday singer; since then, she has become one of my favorite artists and songwriters. I buy everything she puts out. For me, the part of the song that gets to me is the chord shift into the "experience slips away" sections. It brings chills and, if I'm in the right mood, can bring tears to my eyes. The "summers going fast" stanza near the end provides a capstone for the lyric, and the older we get, the more it feels as though the years are rushing on by. I can't say enough about how great this song is. At the culmination of that thread, I did indeed vote "Time Stand Still" as the best Rush song overall. I think it's one of those perfect marriages of words and music and represents the particular lyrical genius of Neil Peart as employed to its best effect. This song speaks to an aspect of the human condition that is timeless and knows no cultural, religious, ethnic, or geographical boundaries. Apparently Aimee didn't really know much of Rush's music and viewed this purely as a "voice for hire" kind of session. While her vocal is merely a minor component of the song, I think it really adds to the emotional power of the track, particularly her sort of ghostly moaning on the instrumental break. This is going to be one of the highest rated songs we discuss on this thread, even though Aimee had nothing to do with its composition and not much to do with its recording. She'll always be a part of this particular work of genius, however. 5+/5
Today's song is "Everything's Different Now", written by Jules Shear and Matthew Sweet; produced by Rhett Davies and Bruce Lampcov. Lyric. Aimee Mann: lead vocals, acoustic guitar, bass Robert Holmes: guitars, backing vocals Michael Hausman: drums, percussion, programming Michael Montes: keyboards Haery Ung Shin: violin Peter Abrams: French Horn "Everything's Different Now" was released in 1989 as the third single from this album.
A cool adult song about the first blush of love, the slightly giddy feeling that even mature adults get when they are in that sweet, sweet phase. In a song that's largely about the ending of a relationship, this seems like an optimistic, commercial way to open the album. It is notable that the hidden star and muse of the album, Jules Shear, actually wrote the lead-off track. (As a side note, is anybody real familiar with his music? I've never really heard it; only a few songs songs, like this one, that he wrote that others have done.) This is like one of the best songs on Welcome Home: acoustic-led but with the twangy guitars and slightly cold keyboards (this is definitely the still the late 80s: and the equalizaton, too, is a little shrill) and other instruments contributing hooks a-plenty....Man, how did this not chart AT ALL? Epic really screwed up with this album; but maybe Aimee pissed them off, too, as another post on another thread on this on this board theorizes. Should be a classic pop song. 5/5
Much as I love Aimee Mann, this to me is not her at anywhere near her best. Or, to put it another way, this is her almost doing what she later went on to do, but not quite. It's pleasant and I can enjoy it because I know her later stuff, but for what it is, it isn't much.
Just to clarify, Aimee is not on the song True Colors by Cyndi Lauper, she provides backing vocals on the song The Faraway Nearby which is on the the album True Colors.
As an interesting aside, a book covering all of her songs has recently been published. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1789520363/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I really love his album "The Third Party", with just him and Marty Willson-Piper (the Church). I got it after seeing Jules host the original MTV Unplugged series. His voice may be too Dylanesque for some. I found his later albums a little too slickly produced, so stopped following him after "Healing Bones".
Thanks for the reminder; I had seen that listed for pre-order before and meant to get it but hadn't gotten around to it. Looks like it's not being released until April 15th on Amazon.de but I've pre-ordered it so should have it pretty soon. Hopefully it will help me with this thread!
"Everything's Different Now" opens up the third 'Til Tuesday album in strong form. This isn't my favorite song on the LP by a long shot, but it's quite good. I'm a big fan of Matthew Sweet's work, although this comes from the early phase of his career when he was struggling to find his footing. As for Jules Shear, I had read great things about his work and so bought one of his albums (The Great Puzzle). I liked it so little that I rather quickly sold it off, which I very rarely did with ANY album I bought at that point in my life. I just could not warm up to his voice, his writing style...anything. I've never investigated anything else he's done and he seems to have fallen off the musical landscape for the most part over the past 15 or so years. The acoustic/electric strums that announce the start of this track signal a change in the band's sound. I do see where, with some arrangement tweaks, this could have been turned into a country song. The production is a bit fuller and better sounding here as compared to the last album (which itself was a huge sonic improvement over the debut). I don't think the song quite gels into a great track. The melody on the verses doesn't seem to fit that well with the choruses. The bridge is fantastic though. 3.9/5
Everything’s Different Now I like this song, but after it’s not one of the strongest on the album. I find it a little quirky, maybe because Aimee didn’t write it so it doesn’t fit in completely and it’s not quite melodic in a way I am used to. The production is fine, I like the acoustic guitar start, vocals are good. Interesting that she named the album after a song that wasn’t her own, but maybe the phrase was more appropriate to the situation than anything in one of her own songs. 3.9/5
Everything's Different Now is my all-time favorite of Aimee's albums. For my taste, only the Magnolia / Bachelor No. 2 era comes close after this. One thing I particular like about this album is that there are a lot of uptempo songs combined with her more mature lyric writing approach. Her solo albums can get bogged down in mid-tempo after mid-tempo song and in quirky arrangements. This album puts everything together - great performances, great songs, great arrangements. Unlike the other 'Til Tuesday albums I like every track on this one. The title track is wonderful but I can agree with other folks who say it's not at all the best track on the album. That shows how much higher the bar is on this album. This track is better than probably 75% of what is one the first two 'Til Tuesday albums yet it sits in the middle of the pack on this one!
It's going to be interesting as we go forward to see what each "regular" considers to be her best album. Currently (and for the past 20+ years or thereabouts), I'd give that honor to I'm With Stupid, which I think is basically flawless, with at least five of her best-ever songs. Bachelor No. 2 and Whatever are just behind it though and The Forgotten Arm is a slight notch below those. However, I'm certainly open to reconsidering this as we go through each album here. The Magnolia soundtrack never did that much for me, probably because (a) I hated the film and (b) a couple of Aimee's songs had already been released elsewhere prior to appearing on the soundtrack album, so I knew them in different contexts.
