I'm automatically predisposed to love anything with electric piano, and this is such a great groove. The line mentioned by @janine'sdream is worth quoting in full: "But I'm the stuff / Of happy endings / Though mostly bluff / Belief suspending / But close enough / For just pretending to care." And then the directness of the last line in the chorus, "Gone, but I don't know where." 4.8/5.
High on Sunday 51 A good song with clever lyrics, really well produced and sung. I wish there was a bit more to it, a bit more variety, dynamic swings, something. But hard to fault- it’s a nice, compact short song. 4.3/5 Lost in Space This is more of what I was looking for in the previous song - more variety. Great lyrics, meticulously produced and sung. Someone earlier in the thread noted how well she enunciated her words and I noticed that here. This album is on the dark and somber side as everyone knows, but there are also so many beautiful moments on it. 4.9/5
I like the Wurlitzer a lot, but the title track never really takes off for me, it's a bit too polite musically. 3.7/5
Lost in Space (the song) Verses just sit there. Much more lively pre-chorus and chorus. Average bridge. On the whole, this isn't bad, but it's not a song I ever feel compelled to revisit. 3/5.
I meant to contribute to this thread from early on but have gotten sidetracked with real life things. I hope my popping in here out of order isn't rude. I was aware of Aimee Mann from Til Tuesday ("Voices Carry" and the particularly bewitching "Coming Up Close"), but Bachelor No 2 and Magnolia really sealed it for me. I went through a pretty devastating breakup not long after Bachelor came out, and I remember driving across states to try to escape myself, sobbing and screaming in the car, while listening to that album. "Wise Up" provided a soothing kind of comfort. I listened to these endlessly over a period of a few months as something to hang onto.
"Lost In Space" is good ear candy and has a nice guitar solo, and continues the theme of addiction with some sympathy and intelligence; but somehow just doesn't make it to the heights of Aimee's best stuff for me. 4.1/5
Today's song is "This Is How It Goes", written by Aimee Mann and produced by Michael Lockwood; co-produced by Ryan Freeland; mixed by Michael Brauer. Lyric. Aimee Mann: vocals, six- and 12-string guitars, bass , tambourine Michael Lockwood: SK-1, VL 1 and 5, 12-string guitar, slide guitar and other electric guitars Jebin Bruni: Prophet 5 Patrick Warren: Chamberlin strings and horns John Sands: drums Buddy Judge: vocals A live version of this song was released on the Special Edition of Lost In Space, released in 2003.
This is How it Goes Now, this is the Aimee that I love. Strong song all around, and a sympathetic arrangement. I like how it starts simply and quietly and builds from there. The first of several highlights of this album. Heck, I'm gonna listen to it again right now. 5/5
This is How it Goes I tend to prefer the more low key songs on this album, and this is one of the best. 5/5
This is How it Goes is very very nearly a 5/5 song for me, and definitely in my top tier of Aimee Mann songs. I adore the conversational opening - it's such a great way to pull you into a song. The opening lines really hit home - I get exactly what she's saying and it relates so well to my life. I love the forlorn 'buying/selling' metaphor as an exploration of how we try, in life, to convince others to like us/accept us/understand us/fall in love with us/help us - it runs through this album and first establishes itself in this song. And I absolutely love the way the melody unfurls and grows, until it hits the bridge and the absolutely glorious instrumental break, before falling away into the darkness again at the end. This song is an example of consummate songcraft, and is an intensely moving and cathartic experience when listened to whilst feeling low or lost. It's not quite a 5/5 for me, simply for the line 'It's all about drugs' - because I don't believe it is - that narrows the scope unnecessarily and seems a little ugly or crass to me somehow. I'm really not sure why the drug theme is so prevalent on this album, but there are many reasons people crash and burn, and addiction can be to many things, not just drugs. Aimee usually leaves her songs more open than that. Anyway, for whatever reason, the line jars with me a little. But, nevertheless, I adore this song. I also adore - in fact possibly slightly prefer - the live version. Maybe that's because it was when I heard this song played live on the Lost in Space tour that it clicked for me and I realised how brilliant it was. 4.9/5
This Is How It Goes reuses Just Like Anyone's melodies and themes much more successfully. I liked what she did with it then, and I like it even better now. I don't hear it as self-plagiarism, but instead as further development of something that was left unfinished and in need of resolution. 4.6/5
