Humpty Dumpty: quintessential Aimee Mann. A great opener for a great album. That line about "wouldn't you want to be who you had been"... well, that to me is the heart of this artist's appeal, a blend of lyric and performance that add up to so much more than the sum of their parts, reminiscent of what Dylan does, making an emotional connection and - yet again - making you feel good and bad at the same time. A candidate for my Top 10 Aimee Mann songs. Humpty Dumpty: 5/5
Now we're getting into treacherous territory; overall I feel like Aimee started a slump into a same-sounding, downbeat style starring with Lost In Space. Or it was just me moving on. But I loved it at the time, and Humpty Dumpty is a highlight of the album. I can really relate to the lyric, unfortunately. From this point on her lyrics deal less with record company frustration and more with the dark side of life - depression, psychological problems, addiction. I'm not sure why, but I presume we will discuss why. 4/5 for the Humpty Dumpty.
This song is interesting -- I have to think that it's not autobiographical, but for some reason Aimee does seem to have become a bit concerned with addiction issues at this point. We really can only speculate. My guess is that it's not her, it's someone else close to her who was going through things. Not that Aimee doesn't have issues: I know I've read an interview where she talks about being in therapy, and this may have brought out things in her that she wanted to explore in her songwriting. But, at any rate I think this is a devastating song and it really does hit hard at the kind of desperation that people who are really lost in the maze of their lives -- and most of us have been there at some point, I fear. It's kind of a downer beginning to the album, but as I mentioned when we started Bachelor No. 2, I like downer beginnings! Aimee makes such personal albums, by which I mean, you, the listener, have this personal relationship with her song that works on several levels. It ain't music you play at parties. I so respect her for delving deep into the murky issues of the soul with sensitivity and sympathy. In a way, I suppose this is a continuation of the "Deathly" character in this song, and it seems more thematically connected to that song and "Save Me" than it does earlier songs in her career (though, I remember there was some kind of lost soul that she wrote about during the last two 'Til Tuesday albums, this feels different: richer, which more depth and fine-tuned sadness.) Lockwood does a good job producing this, and his slide guitar recalls both George Harrison and Jon Brion's (slightly lighter) work -- the mastering of this could be a good deal better, dynamics-wise -- the SACD sounds good, but it also goes for 50 euros... but hello, it is 2003. Whaddayagonnado? 5/5
I think you sum the Magnolia soundtrack up perfectly. "Diverse, quirky, clever, heartfelt songs." Even the songs I'm slightly less keen on (One, Save Me) sound pretty great in this context. It's strange how such a diverse collection hangs together so well. It feels much more like a finished album to me than Batchelor No. 2 ever did. I adore Momentum and Build That Wall in particular, but I think it's a really great snapshot of Aimee's songwriting talents and one of her most genuinely enjoyable releases. It feels weird to give it a score as it's not a proper album, but maybe 4.5?
I played Humpty Dumpty many times today, and it just doesn't grab me. There's nothing wrong with it, but nothing about the song distinguishes itself for me. I remember having the same reaction when I got Lost In Space day of release. It's a well made track, I simply don't connect with it and I don't know why. 3.7/5
Humpty Dumpty. So... I was so excited by the release of Lost in Space and getting new Aimee material. I bought a copy on CD the day it was released but, heading away from the tills , I noticed the album was on one of those listening posts they used to have. I told myself sternly not to listen, that I wanted to hear the album properly at home, but then I couldn't resist. And... oh how my face fell. The opening track sounded like another mid tempo plod, with a feel that seemed like a lesser rehash of I Should've Known or How am I Different, and the song also reused the nursery rhyme trick she'd already used on Choice in the Matter. But, gradually over time something weird happened. The song - and indeed the whole album - grew on me. I liked it well enough reasonably quickly, but then six or seven years later, playing the album in the car one day, everything clicked and I realised that the album is a staggering achievement, a work of absolute artistic genius, and that this opening track sets the scene perfectly. It's quite devastatingly sad (so many heart-breaking lines and images) and introduces themes, both musically and lyrically, that recur throughout the album. In many ways I think this is definitely a concept album, and while the opening song isn't by any means the best on the album, nowadays it pulls me in and almost makes me want to cry. I don't know if the themes of disappointment, and of getting lost in endless repeated mistakes, and of nothing measuring up to what we thought it would be, just hit home much more now I'm middle aged, but I just find this speaks volumes to me. 4.5
I love Humpty Dumpty and the guitar interplay during the solo break is brilliant and one of favorite guitar arrangements, since, well, Abbey Road. Beautiful. Top 5 Aimee track for me. 5/5.
Yes, it is a concept album —I guess most of her records from here on out are— and its a masterful one. I can see not getting it until middle age. She was almost 42 when it came out.
Today's song is "High On Sunday 51", music by Aimee Mann and words by Paul Dalen & Aimee Mann; produced by Michael Lockwood and co-produced by Ryan Freeland, recorded by Ryan Freeland and mixed by Michael Brauer. Lyric. Aimee Mann: lead and backing vocals,, acoustic guitar, bass, paddles, percussion,, drum fills Michael Lockwood: electric guitars, baritone guitar, autoharp, soprano zither, dobro Jebin Bruni: Chamberlin strings, piano Michael Penn: drum loop Buddy Judge: backing vocals Paul Dalen was Aimee Mann's road manager.
See, I rate this song way, way above Deathly or Save Me. I also view it as more of a representative Aimee Mann song. Yes I would love a copy of the SACD but I'm not paying £50. We need an RSD style deluxe expanded vinyl release, stat!
High On Sunday: 3.5/5 I like it, but it's a bit throwaway and not a patch on Humpty Dumpty. I also don't love the heroin/e wordplay, it seems a little too pat, for me.
Great atmospheric song. Docking a point for the mixed metaphors in the verse that mentions crossing the Rubicon alongside the ship imagery. 4.9/5.
High On Sunday 51 has a great lyric, but maybe a bit too clever for it's own good. As some have said, her lyrical focus shifted dramatically from Lost In Space onwards and there are a lot of songs about addicts and addiction but I've always felt she was talking about characters rather than writing from an autobiographical point of view. For me, Magnolia is a film inhabited by characters from Aimee Mann songs, which is one of the main reasons i like it. 4.1/5
High on Sunday 51 was one of the tracks I liked best on early listens to this album, but maybe it was a little too immediate as it's overshadowed for me now by a lot of the other songs. I think it has a good melody but it also doesn't really go anywhere. Again, a few nice lines in the lyrics but no moments that really grab me, whereas in many of the other songs there are lines, and turns of phrase, that take my breath away with their insight and intelligence. But this song is very atmospheric and starts to layer on all the spooky, spacey sounds that make the production on this album so enveloping. I'll give it 4 out of 5.
High On Sunday - dark stuff but kind of...journalistic/voyeuristic. I always liked the slide guitar lick though. 4/5.
Aimee and Paul Dalen put the necessary amount of work into High On Sunday 51, but the raw material was lacking. I find the lyrics amateurish and the music merely okay. It's good that Aimee was trying new things, but this one doesn't work for me. Lost in Space is not off to a good start. 3/5
High on Sunday A droopy cadence, a canned beat, and no redeeming bridge or interesting variance as things progress. Definitely one of the lesser songs on the album. 3/5.
I'll count votes (and add my own) later; I slept late and now have no time. Today's song is "Lost In Space", written by Aimee Mann and produced by Mike Denneen and Michael Lockwood; mixed by Michael Brauer. Aimee Mann: vocals, bass, tambourine Mike Denneen: Wurlitzer, electric piano, harpsichord Michael Lockwood: SK-1, B-Bender and electric guitars, Chamberlin John Sands: drums Rusty Squeezebox, Mike Randle an Mike Judge: backing vocals
The title track of Lost in Space is one that I struggle to remember clearly when not listening to it, and in my head I sometimes find I've gone from singing it into parts of Today's the Day, which I find similarly hard to remember. It's not that I think it's a bad song in any way, simply that it's a bit like a dream - vivid while you're experiencing it and elusive when you're trying to recall it. I like 'I'm the stuff of happy endings, though mostly bluff...' - so succinct and telling. Musically, it's more about atmosphere than melodic hook, with a chorus that is almost defiantly a non-chorus. But it is, again, so very atmospheric. I like the fact there's no acoustic rhythm guitar (unusual for an Aimee Mann song), which adds to the drifting, other-worldliness of it. The guitar solo, and the way it bends the notes, makes me feel a bit queasy - but weirdly I quite like that! Once again, we haven't reached the heights of the very best songs on this album, but I feel like we're being led deeper into the abyss with each track and it is a very compelling journey. 4.5
