But there's always something in the melodies, not to mention the gorgeous arrangements, that gently softens their topography: Mann can imbue a song with melancholy without completely dragging it down. Mann's songs on "Magnolia" are ravishing and crisp: The lyrics are generally well-sharpened, in typical Mann fashion ("You stay the night at his house with no ride to work/And I'm the one who tells you he's another jerk"). It's a lot of stuff to put into a simple pop song, but Mann pulls it off over and over again. "Save Me," in the way it's written and in the way Mann sings it, isn't about neediness but about pure need with all the desperation burned clean off, an acknowledgment that even people who know themselves, who are extraordinarily self-confident and well-adjusted, sometimes have to reach out. And the song unwinds from there, not so much a plea of "save me" as kind of seduction, in the way Mann unfurls the words like weighty silk - and that's part of the story, too.
The cast of characters behind the words are only half-cloaked in metaphor: In the movie, there's a girl who's losing blood by the ounce, figuratively speaking and then suddenly there's the hope of a passer-by who just might take the time and care to stanch the flow. "You look like a perfect fit/For a girl in need of a tourniquet," she sings at the beginning of "Save Me," directly but without any unsheathed sharpness or, worse, any self-pity.
It makes sense, because Mann's songs always have a strong narrative drive even when there are no overt stories in them.
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In fact, in the liner notes, Anderson (a longtime fan) admits straight off that in writing his movie he "sat down to write an adaptation of Aimee Mann songs." He even ripped off one of her lyrics to use as a line of dialogue. (The other non-Mann tracks are R&B crooner Gabrielle's sweeping 1993 "Dreams" and the lovely instrumental "Magnolia," written by Mann's longtime collaborator, Jon Brion.)īut nine of the 13 songs here are pure Mann - she even makes a cover of Three Dog Night's "One" her own. The only thing that's jarring and ill-fitting about the "Magnolia" soundtrack is that it includes Supertramp's "Goodbye Stranger" and "Logical Song": They're about nothing but nostalgia, whereas Mann never looks back, except, maybe, to invoke the Beatles. So let's consider Mann's soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson's movie "Magnolia" as if she'd never been sidetracked by bad breaks and greedy record labels, as if her effortlessly pointed wordplay and her smartly decked out melodies existed in a pop world of their own, a place no one ever has to worry about how well a record sells or how a contract can trip you up.īecause unlike any number of singer-songwriters who kick around for years, having their share of ups and downs, Mann just seems to get better. Her music is so self-assured, especially at this point in her career, that victimhood just doesn't become her. But she's also too good to become anyone's token. Of course Mann deserves better luck than she's had. 2" is currently available on her Web site.)īut so much has been written about Mann's disappointments - she has no qualms about airing them in interviews - that she's already become something of a poster child for all the hundreds of lost souls out there who make great records and just can't get a break. Mann, a member of the '80s outfit Til Tuesday who went on to make consistently astonishing solo records, hasn't had an easy time of it in the business, and she's recently taken the wise step of making her own records and selling them directly online. There seem to be legions of them, a not-so-secret, not-so-underground network of fans for whom she's a symbol of all that's not right with the music business, the taste of the public, the world.Īnd they're not so wrong. The people who love Aimee Mann do so with a vengeance.
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