@#%&*! Smilers -Special Edition-

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Great CD by Aimee
I have this CD and it is Awsome! Every song I like. Aimee did a great job writing and performing. If you like Aimee Mann's music I really believe you'll like this one.

I can't stop smiling
It's difficult for me to put into words how fantastic this CD is...I love it. Let me say that again...I @#%&*! love it. I've enjoyed it so much that I went and purchased Aimee's live CD/DVD performance recorded at St. Ann's and several of her older CD's. It's not like I haven't always enjoyed her music, its just that this CD really struck a chord with me and I find myself getting choked up listening to it. After 25 years of buying music I find that I always return to listen to just a handful of the hundreds upon hundreds of Cd's I have purchased in my lifetime and I know this one will always remain close by, ready for another spin. Now I'm hoping a live set similar to the St. Ann effort will follow.

Grumpy @#%&*! GENIUS!
I must rectify the lack of mention of the best song on this consistently great album, "It's Over", which is a beautiful kick in the teeth, an exquisite encapsulation of the existential honesty that runs consistently throughout Ms. Mann's (Mrs. Penn's? Nah) incredible catalogue. We all need the reality check she provides us, the mirror with merciless lighting that shows us our flaws, and thereby paradoxically enlightens and uplifts us, after we've undergone the process of self-examination and begun the work of redemption. We adults all have to EARN the right to smile with authenticity, n'est pas? (Children get a pass, naturally.) And then there's the irresistible HOOKS, detailed production, and the pure, refined, intelligent and clever lyric, all patronizing boiled away from the bone. I think of Aimee Mann's best songs as being on a par with the introspective Sinatra at his peak, or Billie Holliday. Indestructible ART, Desert Island Music, Voyager LP nominations! Transformative! Did I mention that this disc is GREAT already? BUY--it'll only hurt for a moment, and then the healing begins...

A Lot To @#%&*! Smile About......BUT...!!!!!!
You can always count on Aimee Mann to do something new and exciting on each new release, be it the alternating narrative on 2005's brilliant concept album THE FORGOTTEN ARM, or the "no electric guitar" policy on the new @#%&*! SMILERS. Lush and full, even without the aforementioned electric axes, @#%&*! SMILERS is, in many ways, classic Mann. However, that may not be enough....but more on that later! The album opens on an upbeat note with the effervescent "Freeway." Quirky percussion, reptiian keyboard runs that weave in and out and a lead vocal that both seduces and soars all combine to make a slice of pop perfection. Add some wonderful lyrics ("The road to Orange County/Leaves an awful lot of leeway/Where everyone's a doctor/Or a specialist in retail") and you have a real winner. Initially, I was less than thrilled with "Stranger Into Starman"...it just didn't feel...finished. However, after repeated plays, I've come to appreciate the song. With it's ominous, low-key piano arrangement and smoky lead vocal, there's an after-hours, torchy vibe to the track that's mesmerizing, growing on you with each listen. One of the disc's high points, "Looking For Nothing" is absolutely stunning. Singing in around three different registers throughout the song, Mann's lead vocal is a thing of natural beauty, while the instrumentation is killer (Special mention need be made of Jamie Edwards' glorious piano riffs). Equal parts melancholy and soothing, this ranks among Mann's all-time Top Ten best songs. Things continue strongly with the country-flavored "Phoenix." This could've been just another break-up song, but Mann elevates it to a whole other level. Opening with the clever lines "Got out of Phoenix/Just in time/A box of Kleenex/For the ride", things just keep getting better and better. Lovely acoustic guitars are juxtaposed with muted (but powerful) orchestration, creating a wonderfully relaxed aural cushion of sound. Toss in more thoughtful, universal lyrics that everyone can identify with ("It's hard to know/When to cut and run/You balance heartaches with your fun/But when the scales tip/You know you're done"), and you have the type of smart pop song that's becoming a rarity in music today. Up next is my favorite cut off the album, the rollicking "Borrowing Time." From it's hypnotic lead vocal to the swinging horns, this cut is unlike anything else on the album. Combine a dose of breath-taking imagery ("Get up - the needle has pricked her little finger/She wants the beautiful child/The blood will bring her") and you have an instant winner! LOVE this song!! There's a shimmering delicacy to "It's Over" that's captivating. Opening with just some gorgeous piano playing and understated orhestration, Mann's vocal dances over the somber, wistful lyrics. Building in tempo and instrumentation as it moves along, the song climaxes in a swirling whirlpool of perfectly mixed and matched sounds. Mann also has an innate talent for looking at every day experiences and putting her own spin on them, as she does with "31 Today." This tale of looking at where life has taken you, it's achievements and disappointments, on, of all days, your birthday, is actually quite enchanting, what with it's hushed verses and lilting chorus. In this case, the road not travelled can be just as enjoyable as the one taken. Things slow down a bit at this point. "The Great Beyond" has a real nice bass line anchoring it, but the rest of the song is a bit schizo, like two or three songs spliced into one. Thing is, we've heard all of them on past Mann albums. I never thought I'd be saying this about an Aimee Mann song, but this is filler. Ditto "Medicine Wheel." Everything here is....nice...from the down beat arrangement to the dour lead vocal, but this cut could very easily have been an outtake from THE FORGOTTEN ARM. I've come to expect every Aimee Mann song to "WOW!" me, and a lot of the songs in the middle of @#%&*! SMILERS fall short of that mark. The same can be said about "Columbus Avenue"....it's nice enough, with a pretty lead vocal and muted arrangement, moving along at a steady pace, but I expect more from an artist of Mann's caliber than "nice" or "steady." As I said earlier, I've come to expect that "WOW!" factor, and it's just not here. It does, however, return with "Little Tornado." Mix together a lead vocal that is equal parts sinister and forlorn, edgy, minimalist instrumentation and a hushed chorus of backing vocals that envoke a swirling cyclone, and you end up with a masterpiece (Dave Eggers' spaghetti Western-like whistling tops it off like some eerie cherry). Brilliant! "True Believer" has a melodic edge to it that just kind of works it's way under your skin, while there's a goofiness to "Ballantines" that's both sweet and silly (Another one of Mann's many talents is her ability to blend opposites, i.e. sunny instrumentation with dark lyrics, a perfect example being showcased here: "It must be hard/Ringing the bells/Of doors that don't swing wide anymore"). very nice, indeed. And kudos to Sean Hayes! Soo...what are my overall feelings about @#%&*! SMILERS? Well, like every Aimee Mann album, I love it.....BUT! As enjoyable as everything's been since 2000's BACHELOR #2, I'd like to see her shake things up a bit more on her next release, maybe revisiting some of the sounds and stylings from her Til Tuesday days, or the excellent one/two punch of '93's WHATEVER and '96's I'M WITH STUPID. Now THAT would make me really smile! (As with all my reviews, I'm giving the disc an extra half a star for including the lyrics, as well as an additional half a star for the gorgeous packaging).

Not Mann's best, but a solid effort
would not go so far as to call Smilers a step backward. Neither 2002's Lost In Space nor 2005's The Forgotten Arm, both different from anything Aimee Mann had previously released, performed particularly well critically or commercially.The brooding Lost In Space, despite being one of the more musically interesting records in the artists reportoire, lacked much of the ironic catchiness of its predecessors, and The Forgotten Arm, while it did make a compelling whole, did lack singles (although "Little Bombs", at least, was solid). So her five-year foray into experimentation could have gone better. Call it experience. Aimee Mann is not running scared. And if there is nothing too surprising about the album, maybe that isn't so bad. Clever, biting lyrics, minor chord progressions and often over-the-top bridges, qualities that have defined Mann's sound since Whatever, all return on Smilers, but with a new sense of maturity, evidence that years of professional struggle have not been lost on the artist. Also not too surprising, disillusionment seems to be the general theme of the record, but coming from an artist who became famous with songs like "Ghost World" and "Save Me", what else could sound so authentic? Anyway, who but Aimee Mann could make a chorus like "I thought my life would be different somehow, I thought my life would be better by now," and make it not only passable, but utterly infectious? Perhaps the most interesting development is the heavy use of keyboards where the electric guitar once dominated. Wurlitzers and clavinets are layered on top of the piano which, rather than merely sounding synthetic, creates a subtle, beautiful ambience. The rhythm guitar and percussion shine throughout, working in unison to lend a special catchiness to songs like "Looking For Nothing", easily one of the strongest tracks on the record, while keys fill out the intro. Gradual layering creates a different but equally memorable effect on the eerie "Little Tornado", a song about self-induced isolation and destruction, complete with whistling by Dave Egger. One major weakness on Smilers is not Aimee Mann's return to her comfort zone, but rather to her failure to find one. The great artistic struggle here is in taking the good from the old and from the new and to develop from the two a cohesive whole. The results of Mann's efforts are a few brilliant tracks, but minor lapses do weaken the record as a whole. "Stranger Into Starman", though not without merit on its own, comes with unfortunate timing - its heavy, repetitive keyboard and failure to build to anything squanders most of the momentum built by a solid first track, and the final song, a duet with Sean Hayes, is certainly fun, but it would have made a much better b-side or a hidden track, perhaps. The benefit to these tracks is that they at least break up the tedium which might potentially arise otherwise. Ultimately, Smilers falls into limbo - not quite ambitious enough to be groundbreaking, but not comfortable enough to pull it off. Aimee Mann, I think, is searching for a balance, and if she ever find it, we may still hear great things.