Aimee Mann
Lost In Space
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For $13.75

The other day I was thinking about the first time many of us got a glimpse of Aimee Mann, finding it impossible to contain herself in that movie theatre in ‘Til Tuesday’s video for “Voices Carry” circa 1985. It was easy to imagine her still being an outspoken artist some seventeen years later. But those years have also produced an immensely talented songwriter and vocalist, as her latest album attests to.

During the intervening years, Mann saw her share of romantic turmoil and record company troubles. Now that she’s happily married to singer-songwriter Michael Penn and in charge of her own musical destiny as founder of the SuperEgo label, you’d think she wouldn’t have anything left to complain about. But Lost In Space is awash in Mann’s distinct brand of clever cynicism.

“People are tricky, you can’t afford to show / Anything risky, anything they don’t know,” she sings on the set-closing “It’s Not.” “The moment you try / Well kiss it goodbye / So baby, kiss me like a drug, like a respirator.” Indeed drugs, addiction and compulsion are recurring themes throughout the record. The incongruous bridge on the beautiful ballad “This Is How It Goes” offers these lines: “Cause it’s all about drugs / It’s all about shame.” On “High on Sunday 51” Mann sings “Baby, please—let me begin / Let me be your heroin / Hate the sinner but love the sin.” Note the homonymic use of the word “heroin.” And on the terrific opening track “Humpty Dumpty” she sings “All the perfect drugs and superheros / Wouldn’t be enough to bring me up to zero.”

All of this could be terribly depressing if not for the stellar melodies that surround these songs. Producer Michael Lockwood, a longtime Mann associate, has tinkered with Mann’s familiar sound a bit around the edges, adding his own multi-instrumental capabilities as well. On one song he offers slide guitar and chamberlain, on the next zither, dobro and auto harp. His distorted guitar work on “Pavlov’s Bell” contribute to making it a standout. Jason Falkner makes an appearance on that track as well, although his former bandmate in The Grays - Jon Brion, who has contributed to much of Mann’s solo work, is conspicuously absent from the disc. Other familiar Mann collaborators include drummer John Sands, keyboard player Patrick Warren, and of course hubby Michael Penn.

The arrangements are sonically rich but they seldom overwhelm Mann’s voice. Lockwood swipes a keyboard figure from the band Air on “Today’s the Day.” And a string section enhances the very pretty “Invisible Ink.” The lyrics here too offer Mann’s unique perspective. “I suppose I should be happy to be misread / Better be that than some of the other things I have become,” she sings. Or how about these lines: “I feel like a ghost / Who’s trying to move your hands / Over some Ouija board in the hopes / I can spell out my name.”

Best of all is “The Moth.” Here Mann finds conspiracy in even the hoariest metaphorical cliché: “The moth don’t care if the flame is real / Cause flame and moth got a sweetheart deal.”

Throughout Lost In Space, Mann makes her familiar lazily swinging tempos work for her. Her vocals sound amazingly effortless, occasionally ascending to a falsetto that has gotten prettier with age. Like all of Mann’s best work, these songs sneak up on you. Three or four listens in, they become like old friends. But I guess after 17 years, Mann is kind of an old friend too. A prickly one for sure, but a friend nonetheless.

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