(May 2000)
The first two Y2K albums in my library, alphabetically as well as chronologically, are Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out and Attractive Nuisance by the Loud Family, which both came out in February 2000. Both of these albums have their moments, but it's hard for me to consider them "best of the decade" material. The YLT album is about twice as long as it needs to be, and the LF album mostly reminds me of the tour and subsequent breakup of the band.
The second third of the year kicked off with the release of a couple of "number" records, Elliott Smith's Figure 8 and Aimee Mann's Bachelor No. 2. I always think of these two albums as siblings, since they came out at the same time and have a similar sound, thanks to Jon Brion's signature production on both.
Elliott's album ended up being the last one of his career, and I've actually wanted to like it more than I actually do. The combination of Elliott Smith, Jon Brion, and Abbey Road studio in London should be a winning combination, but most of the songs just aren't that good. Aimee Mann's album on the other hand, was initially underwhelming, but I've come around to thinking it's one of the best things she's ever done.
The title Bachelor No. 2 refers to the initial album being rejected by Interscope for not being commercial enough, so Aimee bought it back from them and released it on her own label. When the album was rejected in 1999, she had a fairly low profile, but picked up a lot of publicity over the next few months out of the label rejection and the movie Magnolia, so by the time Bachelor No. 2 came out, Aimee was back in the limelight. Striking while the fire was hot.
The album sounds like an extension to Aimee's two previous albums, with the same band and producer. Jon Brion's kitchen sink production gets in the way of a lot of artists he produces (cf. Fig. 8 and Jewels For Sophia), but fits Aimee Mann's style perfectly. The albums she made after Bachelor suffer from listless production and arrangements, but JB keeps things interesting on the early ones.
Aimee always brings the songs, but she had a full batch for Bachelor No. 2. Initially everything seems to blend together on the album (a common criticism of Ms. Mann), but when I play it now (as I'm doing right now), it sounds like one great song after another. "Ghost World" is probably my favorite Aimee Mann song ever, but there are two or three others just behind it, and nothing less than good on the entire Bachelor No. 2 album.
I'm going to see Aimee this weekend at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, or rather I'm attending the festival on Sunday and she's playing there, so if I'm at the Arrow stage during her set I might check it out. Or not, whatever, it's cool. I kind of broke up with Aimee after her dull post-Bachelor releases, but we're still kinda friends, I guess.
Aimee Mann - Ghost World (embedding disabled)
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