Search - Aimee Mann :: Bachelor No.2 Or the Last Remains of the Dodo

No Dodo

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 09/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The best thing about the eighties band 'Til Tuesday, Aimee Mann has long been regarded as something of a best kept secret, an epithet not dispelled by the collapse of her first solo record label Imago after one 1993 album, and then, when the label that released her next album, I'm With Stupid (1995), Geffen, got taken over by the conglomerate Universal, who tried to force her new material in a more commercial direction, by her jumping ship.

Happily, although it took until 1999 before any new material surfaced, by launching her own label, Superego, Aimee Mann had the last laugh, buying back her album, taking creative control and achieving a far better royalty rate in the process. 

The film Magnolia, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, marked her return, featured nine original Aimee Mann songs, four of which resurface here, including her Oscar-nominated song Save Me (not on the US version of the album).

Not having the Magnolia soundtrack album I cannot tell you if all of these are all new recordings or whether there is some overlap, but the song Nothing Is Good Enough, an instrumental in Magnolia, has full lyrics on Bachelor No. 2.

Aimee Mann has had a number of Top Fifty singles in the UK, and has made a number of appearances on Later With Jools Holland, and is therefore known as a highly talented and incisive singer-songwriter, her sharp lyrical wit leavened by her sense of melody, and the creative freedom she clearly enjoys here resulted in her strongest album to date. 

In some ways it was business as usual, as regular collaborators from the past, such as Julianna Hatfield, Glenn Tilbrook, Michael Hausman (from 'Til Tuesday), Jon Brion and Grant Lee Phillips appear on the record, and the song The Fall of the World's Own Optimist was written with Elvis Costello, with whom she had previously written The Other End of The Telescope for 'Til Tuesday, though the other musicians on the record, such as Michael Lockwood and John Sands, overall make a more valuable contribution. The acerbic Calling It Quits was also a single in the UK, and the British edition of this album includes the extra track Backfire"

Aimee Mann ~ Bachelor No. 2

Thijs | Groesbeek, Gelderland Netherlands | 08/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I discovered this album again after I saw the beautiful movie Magnolia. Aimee's music is used wonderfully through that movie, and gave some of the scenes that extra emotional feeling. This European release has some bonustracks and also the video for the Oscar nominated song Save Me, from ofcourse the Magnolia soundtrack. I'm glad that because the movie, Aimee has gained more attention, that she rightfully deserves."