Re: Aimee Mann

Went to see Aimee Mann & Squeeze last night. Great show, but afterwards my friend said to me "Aimee Mann seems like a nice person and between songs she seemed happy, but does she actually have any happy songs?"

I drew a blank, and still cannot think of a single happy Aimee Mann song. I'm sure she has some out there, but they don't swim to the surface. Guess I could look through all her track lists and see if anything rings a bell, but I figure it's just easier to ask.

Maybe her miserable songs have exorcised the sadness from her soul and that's why she's happy between numbers.

In spite of its name, I've always felt "I've Had It," the last track on her solo debut, Whatever, was pretty happy. At the very least, kind of wistful and nostalgic.

To me it is always a turnoff when someone complains that a concert, movie, or play is not "happy" enough. Where is this great repertoire of "happy music" and what artists does it consist of? Most music I love has an element of pathos to it. You watch a great cathartic drama with a friend, and the first thing they say coming out of the theater is "Man, that was depressing". It seems like such a shallow response. All great art is exhilarating. All bad art is depressing.

That being said, I think most of Aimee Mann's catalog is genuinely depressing: sort of unjoyful and uninspired. The only song of hers I truly love is "Build That Wall" from the Magnolia soundtrack. A perfect pop song. I find it not depressing at all because the melody is so beautiful and the instrumental flourishes so perfect.



Post Edited (09-03-08 21:50)

Great point about "happy music" - I have no problem with Mann's dourness, this was just more an exercise to figure out if such a thing as a happy Aimee Mann song existed - I'm not advocating a need for one, just curious if it was out there.

On the way home, my friend made me listen to Jason Mraz, for the very reason that she finds his music to be "happy music." It just made me want to leap from the car and drown myself in the Mississippi.

In fact, now that I think about it, it's this particular friend's obsession with the Barenaked Ladies that is pretty directly the source of my loathing of them - I got desperately sick of hearing about how fun and happy they are.

She also makes me go see Guster every time they're in town, but I don't mind them so much. It's nice to see someone carrying on the massively important influence of Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Not to give the impression that I am opposed to happy music. Just crappy happy music.



Post Edited (09-03-08 22:35)

Ha! I knew your friend was a she! Expressing a desire for happy music is definitely a cry for help. I suggest a steady diet of Nick Drake, American Music Club, and Dilinger Escape Plan. She should be back to her same wretched self in 4-6 weeks.

Maybe Aimee is mad she had her toe chopped off. I know that would make me grumpy.
Also I wonder if being married to Micheal Penn is a laff riot? His music is of the gloomy gus genre sometimes.

Whoops, almost forgot:
How was Squeeze?
Tilbrook and Difford and the rest of the originals (discounting Jools)?

Even though their lyrical content is somewhat dark I always found Squeeze to be happy music.



Post Edited (09-04-08 09:54)

For me, the last purely happy song is Otis Reddings' version of "Merry Christmas Baby", with the M.G.'s backing him up.

i'm not a huge fan so i don't know, but does 'til tuesday count or just the solo stuff...

Squeeze were Difford & Tilbrook and John Bentley, the bassist from Argybargy - Sweets From a Stranger, but a new keyboardist and drummer - at first I'd wondered if Gilson Lavis was now bald and eye-patched, but it was some different scalawag they recruited from somewhere. But they sounded great. And happy.

Difford has gotten a bit paunchy, but Tilbrook looks the same as always. And he duetted with Mann and looked like he was about 3 feet tall in comparison.

It was a good show, especially the beautiful cleavagey girl dancing with drunken abandon right in front of me the entire time.

she does a christmas show..............

[www.ticketmaster.com]


I wonder if the show is depressing, like buying your christmas gifts at Goodwill, or your dad gets drunk and knocks over the tree.

A friend of mine & his boyfriend saw her Christmas show in Chicago last year and hated it. Said she had a lot of attitude and didn't seem happy to be there.

They said Nellie McKay, who was one of the special guests, was the best part of the show.

Aimee Mann's christmas record was pretty disappointing. And I'm a huge fan of hers - in spite/because of the sadly beautiful niche she's perfected (IMHO).

But to the original question - is there good happy music? The one album that I always go back to for that is Sly and the Family Stone's "Stand". The rhythm section is always pumping and the vocalists trade lines that are realist, but optimistic...(yes, there is the Whitey song which is a bit overlong, but still oddly edgy enough to be worth listening to).