The Good
As an EP with only five tracks there is little filler. Polite Dance Song benefits immensely from live drums and a sarcastic, near parody vibe, and manages to squeeze in a chromatic piano run similar to Paul McCartney’s Maybe, I’m Amazed. Man combines funk with baroque instruments effortlessly with a killer chorus.
When I bought Whatever I didn’t expect much, but Aimee Mann was actually on the cusp of a brilliant reinvention from the ashes of Til Tuesday (stereotypical hit wonders) to a “serious singer-songwriter” (a stereotypical cliche). Luckily, Mann had the good fortune to team up with Jon Brion, an unusual producer also on an upswing. A former member of the cult band The Grays, Brion would go on to produce Fiona Apple and the Punch Drunk Love soundtrack.
Doubtful I would have chose to listen to this on my own. I was offered it as I was lending another co-worker the France Gall CDs I recently bought. Anyhow, it’s neat stuff, which I’d sum up in with these words: instrumentation, originality, and ambition. I can already tell from one listen that this is the sort of album that will stand up under repeated, enjoyable listenings for me.
I have to thank reader iPodophile who told me about France Gall, in a comment on my earlier review of April March’s Chick Habit. France Gall is the original, sixties-era French pop chanteuse, with songs written by Serge Gainsbourg. I guess this brand of cutesy, flippant girly wimp-rock stuff is called “Ye-ye”. Who knew?
The Finn Brothers consist of Neil and Tim Finn, two brothers from New Zealand. They were the key members of the art-rock Split Enz in the 70s. After the break up of the Enz, Neil went on to form Crowded House, which Tim temporarily joined for the album Woodface. Tim then spun off to do his own solo stuff, scoring a mild hit with How’m I Gonna Sleep. Crowded House eventually dissolved after the pretty eclectic album Together Alone. Neil’s solo work has been fairly inventive and interesting, but definitely straying away from the Crowded House sound to explore a more home-brewed-electronica vibe. This Finn Brothers album is about as close to Crowded House as is probably possible these days.