Aimee Mann
@#%&*! Smilers
SuperEgo

Aimee Mann is like some pop music ninja. Her songs are groups of stealthy earworms that burrow their way into your head and no amount of medical science can remove them. On her latest, Aimee has gone the opposite direction of the semi-concept album Lost In Space and the full-on concept of The Forgotten Arm. @#%&*! Smilers is merely a collection of songs born of the love of making music.

This attitude is what made I’m With Stupid and Bachelor No. 2 her best albums. The writing is loose and breezy and while the subject matter may be a little dark, the songs are easily some of her most accessible. Take one of Smilers highlights, “True Believer”. With its clockwork rhythm-section and its bitter-resolve lyrics,  you can’t help but sing along to the chorus as she confesses, “I want you, but you’re a poltergeist.” There are not many songwriters who can make you hum along as they are breaking up with you.

Included here are a plethora of radio-friendly singles. The fact is she hasn’t written this many songs that would fit into a corporate-radio play list since I’m With Stupid. Songs like “Borrowing Time”, “Thirty-One Tonight” and “Looking For Nothing” stand right next to “Long Shot” and “Red Vines” as some of her catchiest, but nothing is as killer as the lead-off song “Freeway”. Boiled down, Aimee hasn’t written this great of a pop song since “Choice In The Matter”. The addition of a Moog to her arrangements may bring to mind The Car and Fountains Of Wayne, but there is no denying her dark wit in the lyrics that rail against the fake people in Cali: “They’ll sell you all the speed you want if you can take the blackmail.”

There is more here than just the big, pop numbers. Search deeper into the album and you will find beauty. “The Great Beyond” combines two different songs into a wish of someone leaving forever, “Columbus Avenue” retells a friend’s failure and while “Little Tornado” may be considered the weakest song here, it still catches the ear. It’s “Medicine Wheel” that really stands out as Aimee attempts to stretch her own sound with its Billy Joel piano and horn section. It’s the closest thing she’s even done that might be labeled as ‘rock opera’. In fact, it sounds like something Jim Steinman might do if he was on Paxil.

Simply put, Aimee Mann’s latest an extraordinary effort. Its sounds are subtle and demand closer inspection. @#%&*! Smilers (insert your own curse word) is a collection of music by an artist who after years of tearing the record industry apart has the innate ability to turn character study into pop art. Her characters may be a sad lot, but Aimee Mann’s skills as tour guide rival those of Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello.

“Freeway”

The Weepies
Hideaway
Nettwerk

At first listen, the new Weepies album causes a questioning sense of wonderment. Here is an album by a band whose story seems so candy-coated: two people who are fans of each other met, fall in love, form a band, release an incredible debut, have a child and go on the road touring with a measure of success.

The road took its toll it seems as displayed by the first 13 tracks of their second album, Hideaway. It’s dark and unbalanced. Darker than you would expect, yet after a few listens the subtle nuisances of their infectious folk-pop begin to burrow themselves into your brain. The infection really begins to kick in by track three, the title track. “Hideaway” is a slice of pure, acoustic pop heaven with a killer chorus and beautifully emotional bridge.

As you listen more closely other songs begin to pop out: “Wish I Could Forget”, “Antarctica”, “Not Dead Yet” and “Old Coyote” — all are dark and somewhat depressing yet they all end up stuck in your head. And then you get to the last track and suddenly the clouds part and it’s all rainbows and unicorns. “All This Beauty” with its 50’s rhythm, bass and backing vocals sticks out like a sore thumb, but is probably meant as a coda. It comes across almost as an apology or more likely as a teaser for the next album.

The only disappointment with the album is the lack of songs with Steve on lead vocals. He is showcased on four of the 14 tracks which ultimately takes away from the experience of listening. Deb’s voice does indeed have a beautiful lilt, but hearing Steve sprinkled throughout is just as enjoyable. Hopefully they didn’t listen to all those critics including myself who gushed over Deb’s voice on Say Am I You. As it is though, Hideaway is a rich follow-up which avoids that tricky sophomore jinx by taking chances making for a more in-depth listen than artists who simply copy their first album.

“Hideaway” - The Weepies

Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall
Geffen

Rufus has never been one to shy away from the fact that he’s gay, but to go to such lengths to prove it is either the sign of strength or a drama queen. His performance to pay homage to Judy Garland was so popular that several shows were added not only at Carnegie Hall but in London, Paris and Los Angeles, but were they worth preserving a singer who has the audacity to recreate one of the most loved live recordings of all time?

Yes. It’s great fun even if Rufus’ distinct voice doesn’t always live up to the material. The moments between songs are fun, too, because he talks to the audience at the same moments Judy does during her performance back in 1961, not to mention hearing Rufus’ perfectionist nature being presented here when he has the orchestra start over having missed a cue or when the tempo not being to his liking.

Not being a Judy Garland fan myself, I was surprised to discover how many of these songs I actually knew or had heard at some point. The highlight here is surprisingly a song that Rufus lets his sister — the incredibly talented Martha Wainwright — take over completely. Her rendition of “Stormy Weather” is lush and gritty at the same time and actually grounds the recording finally from its lofty goals. This album is probably only for Rufus fans and for curious Judy fans, but there is no denying the love that Rufus puts into this show. He even included a picture from Judy’s performance which shows his grandparents sitting in box seats enjoying the show. It seems that some things do skip a generation.

“Stormy Weather” - Martha Wainwright @ The London Palladium

Janet Jackson
Discipline
Island

In what fans are hoping will be the end of Janet’s Trilogy Of The Uninspired, Discipline is as bland and lackluster as Damita Jo and 20 Y.O. Keeping the vixen burning is the only thing that Ms. Jackson seems to want to do. She’s a 41-year-old kitten who wants to be tamed, stroked and told what to do. In fact, if you look at the credits for this album, she really is letting everyone else do the work. No longer is she credited for the majority of songs which means either she was trying to do something different or her new record label stepped in trying to make sure they had a hit on their hands. The only sign of hope for fans is the electro-robotic “Rock With U” which sounds like a fun, new direction for Janet, but unfortunately it’s not explored elsewhere.

“Rock With U”

The Magnetic Fields
Distortion
Nonesuch

For a man known throughout the music community as one whose lyrics are as witty as his melodies are strong, it’s quite daring to start off the new album by his biggest project with an instrumental that only has an occasionally screamed “Three way!”. Distortion has a lot of its namesake, but the problem here is that some of these don’t need the effect or don’t lend themselves to the noise simply to live up to the title.

“Old Fools” is a beautiful ballad about growing old in love which lies in a bed of distorted guitars that need not be there. The same is true for the next two songs on the album: “Xavier Says” and “Mr. Mistletoe”. Thankfully, the album kicks back into the higher-quality song writing you’d expect from Stephin Merritt. “Drive On, Driver” is melancholy, but the distorted guitars add to the gloom of the song which leads into the hilarious “Too Drunk To Dream” where the feedback actually adds to the weight of the song leaving the listening feeling as drunk as the protagonist.

Other highlights include “The Nun’s Litany”, “Zombie Boy” and the album’s best song “California Girls” made even more entertaining by the fact that Stephin has Shirley Simms sing, “Then will they taste my wrath/They will hear me say/As the pavement whirls/’I hate California girls’”. In fact, Shirley’s occasional vocals adds far more depth to Distortion than if Stephin had sung all the tracks. She really adds to “Drive On, Driver” and “Courtesans” all-in-all making for another satisfying album by the quirky Magnetic Fields.

“California Girls”

Listening to: “Oxford Comma” by Vampire Weekend

Goldfrapp
Seventh Tree
Mute

On occasion a collection of music comes your way that takes you by surprise. You try hard not to gush over it, but when the sounds hit your ears you realize what you are witnessing is a masterpiece of its genre. Goldfrapp’s fourth album is that — a masterpiece of ethereal pop. Seventh Tree truly astonishes in mood. Listening to the ten tracks is like floating on a dreamy sea of melancholy.

Yet the songs aren’t truly sad. The album starts off with “Clowns”. All acoustic guitars, strings, bass and Allison’s breathy instrument that barely articulates anything in the song. Her vocals come and go like a tide due to backward masking and tape hiss effects. With all this atmosphere you would expect the song to be about the loneliness of a clown. Nope. It’s actually about fake boobies, “Only clowns would play with those balloons/What’dya wanna look like Barbie for?/…Titties that live on and on and on…”. Not the typical subject matter for Goldfrapp, yet it prepares you for the ebb and flow of the rest.

Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory work these songs with more than just their typical electronic sound. The addition of live drums and guitars helps lift Seventh Tree above the typical drowning in maudlin that too many Emo bands fall prey to. Take “Happiness” for instance — one of two songs that could actually be considered mid-tempo. The song seems to be about finding happiness in tone, but deeper inspection reveals lyrics to be a commercial for joining a cult: “We can see your troubled soul/Give us all your money/We’ll make it better”. Another amazing thing about the album is its specific and carefully planned out arrangements. In the aforementioned “Happiness” a pan flute plays under the singing evoking a sense of a pied piper leading you to trap.

At Seventh Tree’s heart is the band’s true work of art. “A&E” in a little over three minutes it digs up feelings of loneliness, isolation, psychotic co-dependence, hope, love, confusion, despair and hospitalization. (A&E stands for Accident & Emergency in the U.K.) All this is done with nature sounds, a lone acoustic guitar, swellings of keyboards and an eery choir of Alison’s vocals. In other words, it’ll never be a hit. It conjures up too many complex emotions for the masses; however, the Top 40 crowd will be missing out on what will probably be one of the most beautiful songs of 2008 if not the decade. It’s that good once you’ve explored being in its skin.

And there are so many other great songs. The exploration of human nature in “Some People”, the almost rock song and potential single in “Caravan Girl”, and the enigma that is “Eat Yourself”. It must be pointed out that like their last album Supernature it pays to listen to the end. Much like “Number 1″, “Monster Love” here is a must hear. A twisted, gorgeous song, it uses a big chorus and more backward masking effects which emulate the feeling of experiencing “The folly of a monster love/Like you”. The chorus is especially instantly likable and as Alison fades repeating, “Everything comes around/Bringing us back again/Here is where we start/And where we end,” you are left with a sense of hope that things will turn out just fine and with a strange urge to just start Seventh Tree from the beginning in an attempt to recapture that innocent feeling of discovery before naivety is lost.