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Lost In Space
The front door slams shut behind you, the sound echoing throughout the empty apartment. It's quiet except for the sound of rain outside the window. Your keys clink as they land on the table; you put a fresh pot of coffee on. An unread newspaper -- its news now a day old -- sits nearby. You flop on the couch exhausted, with a cup of coffee to read the paper, its predictability somehow comfortable. The above setting doesn't so much describe the lyrics or music of Lost in Space , Aimee Mann's fourth studio album, as much as it describes how it feels. Warm, familiar, predictable, comfortable. There are no surprises here, just what we've come to expect. While Aimee Mann dished out excellent two power-poppy discs of alt-rock early in her career, the public failed to pay attention.
Over the course of several critically acclaimed solo albums, former 'Til Tuesday singer Aimee Mann cultivated an image as a perpetual underdog, a jaded romantic who retains just enough of an idealistic streak to keep getting hurt all over again. Mann's public battles with her record labels have added to her image as a world-weary fighter at war with a world of yes-men and egocentric jerks—particularly during her struggle to get 's brilliant Bachelor No. But a funny thing happened to her early in She began winning big. Mann beat the big boys at their own game when fan and friend P. Anderson essentially created the movie Magnolia as a love letter to her music. Mann wrote and performed nearly the entire soundtrack to Magnolia , scoring a richly deserved Oscar nomination in the process. She ended up releasing Bachelor No. Anderson helped provide Bachelor with the sort of fairy-tale ending Mann would never allow herself in song, but that meant she had to follow it up with an album that lacked the benefit of association with a major Hollywood movie. Such a remarkable run of mainstream success would lead to a change in sound and spirit for a lot of artists, but thankfully, Mann continues to see the dark cloud hovering above every silver lining. The brevity and bleak emotional terrain of the song Lost In Space seem designed to deflate the high expectations greeting it, but Mann remains a perfectionist throughout: Not a note or word is wasted throughout its nearly 40 minutes.
You've probably heard Aimee Mann's story a dozen times: how, after releasing albums on Geffen in the 90s You've probably heard Aimee Mann's story a dozen times: how, after releasing albums on Geffen in the 90s, she quickly became dissatisfied with the label's treatment of her records, and soon decided to buy back the tapes for her third full-length, Bachelor No. Just another long-haul pop talent that the majors have signed and then foolishly refused to make time for. So we can all root for her success story: she managed to move , copies of Bachelor No. The story of her business life is worth retelling because it's so close to the themes of her songwriting: she hits bad times, but never mires herself in them. And it's easy to see why P. Anderson wrote his film Magnolia loosely around her songs: she understands the people who struggle through their work and love lives on the fringes of show business. As an industry veteran she seems to have learned to turn the highs and lows into a day-to-day routine, and in that spirit, she's learned to explore the most depressing themes while transcending the self-pity so associated with lovesick laments.