Make A Killing: Aimee Mann, song-by song

Both the Peter Wolf songs are pretty good, though they really remind me of 80s Dylan, mainly because of his distinctive voice. You can almost hear the Aimee Mann-isms in them, especially lyrically, but how different would they sound with her singing them?

3.5 each for both of them.

 

Tomorrow, I'll start holding songs up from the Bachelor No. 2, or the Last Remains of the Dodo as well as the rest of Magnolia sountrack songs -- the two projects are very much linked.

Aimee had by now permanenently settled to LA, following Jon Brion; and had met and fallen in love with singer-songwriter Michael Penn. Penn and Mann were married on December 29th, 1997.

Penn and Brion both had done the soundtrack for upcoming film director Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight film, which was released in early 1996. Anderson was a Aimee Mann fan, and his latest project was literally, in his words "an adaptation of Aimee Mann songs."

The Magnolia soundtrack had so many Aimee Mann songs on it, both a combination of older songs and new songs that it was subtitled Songs by Aimee Mann, though there were a few other non-Mann songs on it.
The tracklist was:

1. One (Harry Chapin)*
2. Momentum (Aimee Mann)*
3. Build That Wall (Aimee Mann-Jon Brion)
4. Deathly (Mann)
5. Driving Sideways (Mann-John Lockwood)
6. You Do (Mann)
7. Nothing Is Good Enough [Instrumental] Mann
8. Wise Up (Mann)*
9. Save Me (Mann)

IN addition to the above two songs by Supertramp, a song by Gabrielle and a Jon Brion instrumental piece were included on the album.

Meanwhile, while Anderson was writing, and eventually, making the film, Aimee was embroiled in the usual struggle with her record company. DGC merged with Interscope records at this time; while her initial meeting with the new CEO of the company seemed to go well, it seems that the label had already written her off. I'm With Stupid had sold less than 200 000 copies and Aimee Mann was beginning to seem like a lost cause, business-wise.

She was told that her new album, completed in 1998, would not be seeing release. "No hit single". Furthermore they were unwilling to let her try to release it on another label, or even self release it. It was an exact repeat of the situation she had had with Epic Records after the release, non-promotion and flop of Everything's Different Now in 1989.

Another legal struggle ensued; Aimee freed herself from the label but they retained ownership of the masters. After a negotiation, she managed to buy the unreleased masters for an amount "in the low six figures", helped no doubt by inclusion of some of her songs in the upcoming Magnolia film.

The Magnolia soundtrack was a huge hit with critics and brought Aimee Mann a wider audience that she had not encountered before. "Save Me" was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Grammy Award (it lost in both cases.) The soundtrack itself charted at #58, her highest charting album since Welcome Home in 1986 eventually went gold, selling more than any other album of her solo career and equalling the sales of Welcome Home.

____________

Without a label now but owning her own masters, Aimee's career took a radical left-turn. In what would turn out to be quite normal for artists in the fractured market of the 21st century Aimee formed her own label, Super Ego Records and self released Bachelor No. 2, mainly through online sales. Her fans responded and the album sold 25,000 this way; this, and the higher profile she had thanks to the Magnolia film led in turn to a distribution deal that got her next album, Bachelor No. 2, into shops.

The result was that Bachelor No. 2 t sold more than the her previous albums had: not much more; and not as much as the Magnolia soundtrack had sold. But crucially, she was now on her own label, she was her own boss and any profit made from the record was SuperEgo's and SuperEgo's alone. In a way, the move to self-releasing albums was something that transformed the narrative of her career from one of bitter struggle against authority to independence and self-realization.

The tracklist of the original American album was:

1. How Am I Different (Mann, Brion)
2. Nothing Is Good Enough (Mann)
3. Red Vines (Mann)
4. The Fall of the World's Own Optimist (Mann, Elvis Costell0)
5. Satellite (Mann)
6. Deathly (Mann)
7. Ghost World (Mann)
8. Calling It Quits (Mann)
9. Driving Sideways (Mann, Lockwood)
10. Just Like Anyone (Mann)
11. Susan (Mann)
12. It Takes All Kinds (Mann, Brion)
13. You Do (Mann)

The Bolded songs above are songs which were also included in the Magnolia soundtrack.

Aimee released the album with different tracklists in other parts in the world: the Japanese version added

• Save Me (Mann)

While, for the European version, she altered the track-list running order, removed "Driving Sideways", altered the track list and substituted a new song to the European release:

• Backfire (Mann, Brion)

Perhaps confusingly, in 2020 Aimee re-issued Bachelor No. 2 album, remastered as a double vinyl record (and digitally too, though it's not available in Europe) that included the Magnolia songs, which, after all, had mostly come from the same sessions as Bachelor No. 2.

1. "How Am I Different"
2. "Nothing Is Good Enough
3. "Red Vines"
4. "The Fall Of The World's Own Optimist"
5. "Deathly"*
6. "Ghost World"
7. "Calling It Quits"
8. "Satellite"
9. "Driving Sideways"
10. "Save Me"
11. "Susan"
12. "Build That Wall"
13. "Just Like Anyone"
14. "Wise Up"[version 2]*
15. "One"*
16. "Momentum"*
17. "It Takes All Kinds"
18. "You Do"

The above is probably the best way to listen to these songs!

But for the purposes of this thread, I plan to go through the songs in the order of the original American album release(the orange songs above) and hold up the following as "extra-album" tracks:

• Build That Wall {from Magnolia}
• Nothing Is Good Enough [instrumental] {from Magnolia}**
• Save Me {from Magnolia}
• Backfire [Version 1]***{European release of Bachelor No 2}

*already discussed on this thread
***I will hold this instrumental version up separately from the version with vocals.
***another version was released as a B-side in 2003, I will hold that version up separately

 

This pretty much sums up my feelings on these 2 songs though i can't hear anything Aimee-esque in either. I guess he has quite a distinctive voice which is blocking anything else out though. Fine for it's time but not really my cup of tea. I'd give Forty to One 2.8/5 cause it sounds closer to Aimee's stuff and Starvin' to Death 2.4/5.

 

For the sake of completion there is also an enhanced version of the European CD which has the video for Save Me on it.

 

Yes that is also on the Japanese version.

 

OK, i thought the Japanese version was just the audio of Save Me?

 

Maybe I am wrong.

 

I don't have the Japanese version, i just sort of presumed it was audio. You may be right.

 

Wikipedia says the Japanese version has the video on it too.

I have the European CD but am not interested in the video, if it even plays in a Mac in 2020.

 

Yes those old enhanced CDs tend not to work these days

 

I got this from discogs just last year, but not for the mini quicktime video which I just now got to work on the PC.

I got it for the song Backfire, that different version than the one included on the two disk Lost in Space.

 

One helluva typo.

 

I am the master.

 

I have no interest in these tracks, but I was curious so I Googled 'Aimee Mann and Peter Wolf'. In 2012, Aimee tweeted: "I never liked jazz until Peter Wolf explained it to me." Some wit replied: "I never liked classical music until Peter and the Wolf explained it to me."

 

Very clever.

 

I am surprised that Peter Wolf and Aimee were a couple, even if for a short time. They don't seem like a good match, and apparently weren't.
I don't hear much of Aimee in these songs. As Peter Wolf songs, they're probably okay, but I don't think I'll ever need any Peter Wolf.

Forty to One: 2.6/5
Starvin' to Death: 2.6/5

I'm glad that Aimee and Michael found each other, is a beautiful thing.
Aimee Mann and Michael Penn: 5/5

 

I hadn't heard these two Peter Wolf songs that Aimee co-wrote. I have one of his solo albums, but not this one. "Forty To One" is quite good - it hits a rock sweet spot for me, with that burbling organ and the acoustic strumming. This is a sound I can listen to endlessly; it's like a sonic security blanket for me. 3.8/5

"Starvin' To Death" isn't as strong but it's certainly not bad. Solid blues-ish rock burner. 3.1/5

(Am I the last to learn that Peter Wolf was married to Faye Dunaway for about 10 years?)

 

Yup. And he was a free form radio dj in Boston on WBCN.

 

Our votes for:

Forty To One: 3.1667

Starvin' To Death: 2.767

 

Today's song is "How Am I Different", written by Aimee Mann and Jon Brion. Produced by Aimee Mann; engineered by Brian Scheuble; vocals recorded by S. Husky Hoskulds; production assistance by Buddy Judge. Mixed by Bob Clearmountain.

Lyric.

Aimee Mann: vocals, bass, acoustic guitar and "Nashville"(guitar?)
Michael Lockwood: electric guitars
Patrick Warren: keyboards
John Sands: drums
Buddy Judge, Michael Penn & Grant Lee Phillips: backing vocals

 

How Am I Different
5/5 ....a great song! there is not anything I do not love about this song...

 

3.

 

One of my favorite on this album for sure. Just wonderfully melodic and well crafted. The last minute and a half in particular is incredibly enjoyable.

4.6/5

 

I think this is an awesome song and a bold way to begin the album which such a downbeat album. I usually like albums that start this way. Musically, I think that Aimee is really getting into a mellower, more seventies soft rock type of thing with this album and the keyboards really accentuate that kind of dark warmth. I like it.

I also really love the lyric on this, the resigned feeling: but it really speaks to me and I think it says something profound about the human psyche. And the end bit, with its hints of darkness and anger and utter jaded develops from the sad resignation to bitter insinuation so naturally, it's almost a work of genius in and of itself.

5/5

 

'How am I Different'

Just wonderful - 5/5