Customer Reviews

The Forgotten Arm

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let's just say from the start that I have given up trying to be objective about Aimee Mann a long time ago. I fell in love with the woman's voice and songwriting abilities the minute I first heard "Voices Carry" in 1985 (which she recorded with her former band Til Tuesday) and followed her around ever since, through thick (the long overdue success of the "Magnolias" soundtrack) and thin (the strangely impersonal and generic "I'm with stupid", her only small misstep in a 20 year career as a recording artist). Her recordings have never ceased to amaze me for two very simple reasons : 1) This woman can WRITE songs that are at once compelling, memorable, catchy and deeply emotional 2) This woman has a singing voice that doesn't sound like anyone else's - the minute you hear her, you KNOW it's her.

This said, anyone who'll take a close listen to her latest album "The Forgotten Arm" will know that Aimee is still one of the most arresting artists of her generation. The album loosely follows the ordeals of two lovers on their path through addiction and alienation, and the music is the key that holds it together : a straightforward, earthy production that echoes vintage rock and roll, all the while sounding totally contemporary. Aimee has stripped down some of the chubbier production tricks of her previous solo albums, and delivered an album that's both richly textured and minimalistic. Of particular interest is the fact that she has been using the piano a lot more than before, and not just on ballads, giving back this underrated instrument its rightful place.

The songs are all amazing, but some of them are of particular interest. The debut single, "Going through the motions", is a clever and catchy pop-rock affair; however the real potential smash single is "I can't get my head around it", a song that will lodge itself in your brain forever. "I can't help you anymore", "King of the jailhouse" and "I was thinking I could clean up for Christmas" are just as deserving, and the album finds its emotional core with the one-two punch of the achingly beautiful "Little bombs" and "That's how I knew this story would break my heart". "Dear John" and "Goodbye Caroline" are strong rockers and "Beautiful" concludes the album with lyrics that are both mournful and hopeful, leaving the listener to make up their own mind about the way this story ends.

Some will find that this album lacks the emotional depth and sonic adventureness of "Lost In Space", its predecessor; and while it's true that nothing here quite rivals songs like "Invisible Ink" (Aimee's crowning achievement as a songwriter), "It's Not" or "The Moth", this album succeeds exactly by NOT trying to imitate what has already been beautifully recorded. Aimee is a truly challenging artist and "The Forgotten Arm" is a great reminder of that.

Remember when singer/songwriters used to write about beautiful losers instead of singing entries out of their diaries? Aimee Mann returns to this tradition with "The Forgotten Arm" (a reference to a boxing move, which seems too complicated for a non-sports person like me to explain, but from what I gather, the gist of it is this: an boxer is knocked out by the deliberately unused or apparently non-dominant arm of his/her opponent).

This CD, as mentioned in other reviews, is very much akin to the novella form. Its packaging supports the comparison in all areas, including breaking the song lyrics into chapters. One page of the insert contains a "chapter" (song lyrics), and the opposite page contains the associated illustration & caption (gorgeous, by the way. Aimee Mann picked the perfect artist, Seth, for "Lost in Space," and has once again picked the perfect artist for the moody depiction of the two lost souls in "The Forgotten Arm").

While much has been made of her influences on this CD, none of the names that I've read come to mind when I listen to this CD. Aimee Mann said the setting of the "story" is the 1970s, and the music follows this theme. But, the artists that come to mind when I listen to "The Forgotten Arm" are Jackson Browne, Carly Simon, and Joni Mitchell - all who in the '70s hit their strides singing about impossible love affairs & the resulting heartaches. Beyond the lyrics, the musical style also seems to harken back to those three artists, too (for me, anyway).

Yet this is not just a period piece. While "I Can't Get My Mind Around It" sounds like it would be at home alongside Jackson Browne's "These Days" or "Fountain of Sorrow," "Going Through the Motions" is most definitely 21st-century Aimee Mann. "Little Bombs" sounds like high-Joni Mitchell to me (although I don't think Mann consciously borrows anything from Mitchell), and "She Really Wants You" could be the untold, true feelings of the woman who sings only her anger in "You're So Vain." But Aimee Mann stakes her own original claim to this sort of genre. "King of the Jailhouse" and "Beautiful" are true pop/rock masterpieces, sort of in the vein of Neil Young, yet remind me only of Aimee Mann and her careful, impecable perfectionism with lyrics, melodies, and arrangements.

This release is something different, something people may not be used to. Aimee Mann has achieved a unique, concept-driven, and altogether successful album here. There is not a single "skip-over" on this rich and nuanced CD. (Hit the applause button here and scream "encore" for Aimee Mann!!)

"The Forgotten Arm" has a melodic and harmonic beauty matching Aimee Mann's all-time best offerings.

There is a real sense of time and place to the sound here. The songs flow. If "I'm With Stupid" was a wintery Londonesque album this is a summertime Americana album, harking back to her Virginia roots, evoking a time and place with both the sounds and the imagery she employs right from the opening line: "Cotton candy was king on the midway that spring..."

Her voice has never been richer, delivering those trademark "low notes" right when it counts and showcasing her heavenly upper range on "Beautiful" and "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart" - one of the most quietly tender and beautiful ballads she has written since "No One is Watching You Now" or "Ray."

Joe Henry deserves a lot of credit as well for his imagination in helping shape the sound. The injection of a little new blood makes a world of difference on "The Forgotten Arm," with great guitar work from Jeff Trott, punchy drumming at faster tempos, and a very tight core band that you can tell has been touring together for a while. The mix is fantastic with some extremely bold, shimmering, explosive sonics for a "stripped down" album.

For all the justified attention Aimee Mann's lyrics get, her music might just be even better. Nobody is writing catchier songs, and she is often at her best here. Though her songs are mostly about off-kilter relationships, even the cynical observations are wrapped in layers of humor, vivid imagery and sticky sweet music. The difference is in her cleverness and details. Nobody delivers a musical and lyrical combo punch as well as Aimee Mann.

The Forgotten Arm is a striking, awesome album. The songs are strong- bluesy, poppy melodies that string together story after story of human failure and desperation. And yet, the album is a beautiful take on love and the value of individual experiences. Absolutely her best work since the Magnolia soundtrack (Lost In Space had some wonderful moments, but was filled with too many half-baked songs), the music in The Forgotten Arm is catchy, melodic, and (at times) haunting. How many artists have the faith in their album to host the entire thing, song by song, on their website for their fans and critics to listen to first? Not many, it takes a lot of faith in their material.

Here's the write-up in this month's issue of Esquire (by Andy Langer):

"Concept records are like Operation- they take an awfully steady hand. And Amiee Mann's The Forgotten Arm (May 3) is actually a double concept: It's as much about a drugged-out Vietnam vet as it is about the sound of the 1970s era he's stuck in. The incredibly consistent Mann pulls it off with sharp stories, a sharper voice, and li'l bit country, li'l bit rock `n' roll landscapes that are undeniably vivid.

Don't take my word for it, or Andy Langer- listen to a few clips from the record and you'll likely want to hear more."

Aimee Mann blesses us with this fantastic new CD release! The title The Forgotten Arm is actually a reference to Aimee's ability to box and to use a particular move in boxing; but I suppose given the situations the CD involves it could also refer to an arm that hasn't been used to inject drugs into one's self! This is a collection of songs that, when put together in order, tell the story of how a young woman's boyfriend returns home from war addicted to drugs. Then both her and her boyfriend undergo excruciating therapy and a rather abnormal though loving domesticity. Aimee sings so soulfully of the pain and the suffering that even though the subject matter is so serious and painful the songs and musical arrangements are totally beautiful. At the end of listening to the CD tracks I just wanted more! (And so I played it over-twice!) One critic thought so highly of this CD he wrote that "It is the musical equivalent of a novella." He couldn't be more right.

While on one level Aimee sings about their painful relationship with its extra heavy share of problems they both face; the songs are ordered so that they can be seen as a way to tell a story about the two lovers taking a long journey together. The fact that Aimee Mann can work on both levels here is made all the more remarkable when you consider the fact that this album was recorded over a mere five days (yes, five days) last summer! There are her ballads not only about love but also about the tough times she and her man face when addicted to heroin. People have also added that this album has a 70s feel to it-and you can believe them. For 70s lovers these ballads and heartbreaking lyrics bring an added bonus.

A critic for another online music vendor (similar to Amazon) writes that Mann sings her songs "in a devastatingly affectless deadpan" way. I disagree! I think she sings so soulfully you can literally watch and even feel her bleeding from the angst and the emotional turmoil the man and woman have to go through. These are people struggling just to stay in some sort of control over their lives. Yes, her words are direct and she doesn't mince words in her lyrics. But isn't the honesty refreshing instead of "affectless?" I would say yes.

The album starts off strong with a great-but brief-musical introduction that begins the first track, "Dear John." Great guitar and Aimee sings this so soulfully! Then comes the song "King of the Jailhouse." This is a noticeably slower song, thoughtful, singing about her relationship with a man, singing of her pain, confusion, "and they don't give the answers at the end of the test." Great lyrics! "Goodbye Caroline" is an excellent song about ending relationships and not knowing who is in her future. If you follow the theory that this collection of songs is about a road trip then this song could be about saying goodbye just as she and her man depart. Although the problems get worse in "Going Through The Motions," it is in the song "I Can't Get My Head Around It" where we really see how bad things can become. She and her man are in a world where "kicking is hard, but the bottom is harder." You can feel her excruciating angst! The music has a beat to it that highlights their journey and the passage of time in their relationship. The songs "She Really Wants You," "Video," and "Little Bombs" are all insightful and thoughtful. Notice how Aimee uses the video as a reference to her own memories of their past times together-both good and bad. "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart" offers up a beautiful musical arrangement! Aimee's lyrics are again reflective as she sings to show her extreme sadness. "I Can't Help You Anymore" involves just what the title says she's singing about-she can no longer help her boyfriend addicted to drugs; she herself needs to get out now or "it will drag (her) under." She knows she can't do anything to help her man. What an incredibly sad song--but beautifully written and sung. "I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas" is about trying to get off drugs but failing because of the lack of strength to kick the habit-this song gives us a fantastic beat, too. The CD ends with the stunning track entitled "Beautiful." Aimee Mann sings of how they both just want to make their problems go away, to make each other happy with a single wave of a magic wand. The questions of whether or not they need others to help them through their messy problematic lives is not clearly answered; this gives us one final push of the agony that ensues when drugs and relationships get tangled-and people lose control of their lives-which is what Mann tries to display throughout the album.

Mann not only sings on this album; she also plays electric guitar and even acoustic guitar! She works well with her peers: look for Jeff Trott playing electric guitar, baritone guitar, and the mandolin! Victor Indrizzo plays drums, cowbells, and percussion; Jay Bellerose helps out also on drums and percussion. Background vocals are performed by Julian Coryell and Paul Bryan.

All in all, Aimee gets a great score for releasing this awesome CD with hauntingly beautiful lyrics and musical arrangements that will leave you wanting to play it over again several times! It's a concept album, a musical type of novella that is truly memorable, touching, and flawless. The songs themselves are fresh, new, exciting because of their total honesty, and very captivating.

I first experienced "The Forgotten Arm" at a Largo show last Spring.

As a long time Aimee fan, it was exciting to go to a show and learn that Aimee would preview the entire album she was working on in its entirety from start to finish.

From the first time I heard these songs, I could tell that something was different from Aimee's previous albums. As I've heard these songs at shows throughout this year, and now on the fully produced album, I feel that this album pushes the previous boundaries of her earlier recordings. Being a concept album, this album has a kind of momentum that makes you want to listen to it as a whole rather than bit by bit. I found this somewhat with "Lost In Space" but even more so with "The Forgotten Arm" Of course the record still is infused with Aimee's keen observations about what it means to be human, to struggle and to overcome.

It has been great to see this album grow into what it is-which is a great step in a new direction and a highly thought provoking and listenable album that both new and old fans should enjoy!

Aimee Mann has beaten The System that has chewed to bits countless other talents. But Mann is no ordinary talent, she is, we must acknowledge after all these years and all these brilliant songs, an ingenious tunesmith who fits alongside any of the canonical greats. While she may not appeal to the masses as the McCartneys and Lennons and Dylans and Costellos, she is as much a genius as any of them. The only contemporary songwriter I know of who can compare is Elliott Smith, sadly gone.

After Bachelor #2, I wasn't sure Mann could hold on to that kind of brilliance, but after Lost in Space proved otherwise for the most part, I simply stopped doubting her. With the beautiful-titled, stunningly-illustrated, immaculately-produced "Forgotten Arm," Aimee Mann has nearly outdone herself. The characteristic and complex rhyme schemes are here again in full force, her melodies and harmonies are as strong and true as ever, and there's even a tinge of real hope by the end of this staggeringly well-realized and sad fifth album.

Its "storyline" is familiar, but Mann imbues the tale with her wit and unique idiom. Her metaphors and similes are heartbreaking as always, and like all her albums, you will listen to it for years.

I can't wait to catch her in concert this year.

Intelligent and articulate, Aimee Mann's new album THE FORGOTTEN ARM is more a literary masterpiece set to music than a simple CD. I was a little concerned at first when I heard Mann was doing another concept album....her last release, 2003's LOST IN SPACE, ultimately got bogged down under a similar idea...but I had nothing to worry about - THE FORGOTTEN ARM is nothing short of brilliant, all nuanced and deep, heartfelt and passionate. So intertwined are the disc's twelve songs that it's hard to think of them individually, but I'll give it a shot! The opening lines of the first track - "Dear John" - perfectly set the mood for things to come: "Cotton candy was king on the midway that Spring/When I saw you in the ring on the lawn...dear John." Just those few words introduce us to our two main characters, John and Caroline, in an attention-grabbing fashion, augmented by a sturdy backbeat, ringing guitars, tinkling piano and an almost sultry, yet shy, lead vocal from Mann. Next up is the melancholy "The King Of The Jailhouse." With it's almost plodding arrangement, you can't help but feel the weight on our hero's shoulders. And when he utters the words "I'll tell you a secret that I don't even know (Baby, there's something wrong with me)", well, your heart just breaks! Mann delivers the song in a crystal clear vocal that beautifully offsets the song's somber tone. "Goodbye Caroline" has a sweeping 60's feel to it, with the drums, guitars and piano blending together perfectly. Mann adds a huskier, deeper edge to her vocal on this cut, and it works well...VERY well! Then there's the album's first single, the lilting "Going Through The Motions." The flipside of "King Of The Jailhouse", this track is all bouncy and light...and, yet, it's about the trials and tribulations of living day to day with an addict. Over chiming guitars and some tasty drumming, Mann lets us know it's not easy: "I feel like I'm in jail with you and Mr. Hyde(a guy who leaves a trail about a mile wide" and "but when the trumpets fade, you'll go down like a submarine - and you won't see it coming." Only an artist of Mann's talent and magnitude could turn such a downer song into a radio-friendly Summer hit! Amazing! "I Can't Get My Head Around It" is told from the other side of the coin - the junkie's. This is someone who wants to quit...but just can't. Or, possibly, just doesn't think he can. Starting out with some nice acoustic guitar, the track segues into a churning piano-driven rocker (Piano plays a BIG part on THE FORGOTTEN ARM, and it's WONDERFUL!!). Another of TFA's gems! "She Really Wants You" could easily have been a Beatles cover, with it's sparkling vocal, economical instrumentation and honest lyrics. "Video" has to be another one of my favorite tracks off the album; there's something hypnotic and almost other-worldly to the song. Jebin Bruni's keyboards are so player-piano perky that they have to be masking something, while Jeff Trott's mandolin is both comforting and eerie, all at the same time. Add an ethereal lead vocal and haunting lyrics ("Like a building that's been slated for blasting, I'm the proof that nothing is lasting....counting to eleven as it collapses")and you have a hard-hitting story about a sad loser that'll leave you aching. There's a hushed acoustic quality to "Little Bombs" that is both smart and searing. By song's end it's made clear that one can easily be a prisoner, even when there are no bars involved ("Life just kind of empties out, less a deluge than a drought, less a giant mushroom cloud than an unexploded shell"). "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart" is a gut-wrenching ballad, 3/4's of which is nothing more than some gorgeous piano and a killer lead vocal. This is a break-up song to the nth degree, and when Mann utters...no, confesses...the words "Because baby, that's all I know - how to open the door. And though the exit is crude, it saves me coming unglued" it's like a punch in the stomach. "I Can't Help You Anymore" chugs along, all sexy/slinky in spots, soaring in others. The arrangement is particularly infectious, with the piano and drums beautifully weaving in and out. Definitely a strong candidate for THE FORGOTTEN ARM'S second single! Piano also plays a big part on "I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas", anchoring a lyrically heavy song with an almost good-time vibe. The rollicking, barroom joviality is in direct contrast to lines such as "Because I can't live loaded and I can't live sober", "And I know enough to know: that, baby, when it's over, it's over. And it's over" and "..tell you I'm sorry that I made you a witness to my moral decay. And that once upon a time I believed it was a victimless crime", but the fact that it works so well is just additional proof as to why Aimee Mann is considered by many to be one of the best songwriters of the past two decades. Things wrap up with the hopeful (yet guarded) "Beautiful." In summarizing things up, I just want to say that, after the hit and miss quality of the aforementioned LOST IN SPACE, it's good to have Aimee Mann back in fighting form with THE FORGOTTEN ARM, a true contender for 2005's Album of the Year (As with all my reviews, I'm giving the disc an extra half a star for including the lyrics, PLUS I'm giving it ANOTHER half a star for the amazing art direction and concept. If this CD doesn't win a Best Packaging award at next year's Grammys....!).

I thought Lost In Space was just brilliant. I got Forgotten Arm very soon after it was released and didn't like it at all at first.

Many months later I started to spin it again and looked at the drawings along with the story....I mean SONGS.

This isn't just a music album, this is an amazing expression from a truly amazing artist, Aimee Mann. Every song is a chapter to a larger story about a couple and sometimes a song is from the girls perspective and sometimes it's his. Sometimes it's both in the same song.

It's not a happy smiley story but it feels so REAL. This is about living life and trying to overcome the difficulties. The music is great, I love the older style recording, the piano is right on, lots of acoustic guitar on this one. Aimee's voice is as good as ever, raw and unable to mask her artist expression.

If she releases an album half this good in the future I will be a happy man. Thank you Aimee for defying the industry and writing what you want and creating a true classic. Please come play Nashville.

Any rock music in this decade is going to be a some kind of homage. All the room for innovation is gone. What's left is to find out how great artists like Aimee Mann express themselves in a unique way using the old tools.

For the past three CDs, Aimee has been building art songs out of the affectless vocal delivery and smooth, deceptively complex musical backgrounds pioneered by the Carpenters. It worked to heartbreakingly great effect on "Bachelor No. 2" and the "Magnolia" soundtrack, but by "Lost In Space," it was starting get a little dozy--although that's an excellent album.

Happy to say, on the new album, Aimee abandons that style in favor of a classic rock sound driven by a pounding Elton John/Richard Manuel piano sound--acoustic piano, not synths. The drums whack, the guitar (almost) wails, and Aimee sings in about as animated a style as she ever gets.

She also lets go a little bit. She's usually a very controlled artist, as fans of the obsessively precise "Bachelor" know. They will be shocked to hear "King of the Jailhouse," where she stretches the word "back" into six syllables, or to hear her actually rock out on "Goodbye Caroline" (more cowbell!)and "Going Through the Motions." The looseness is the perfect backdrop for the story she tells about a careening love affair that has the crisis-to-crisis feel of the era she's both writing about and paying tribute to: the 1970s.

There is not a weak song on this album, and it might turn out to be her best album; certainly it's at least on a par with "I'm With Stupid" and "Bachelor No. 2."

Finally, more good news. Not one song on this record is about how the record company screwed her over! She's the boss now; she can only fire herself. She's been free of record company meddling for three albums now; it seems that pain has finally worn off. While it was a great source of material for awhile, it was starting to sound a little too insidery. She's back among us, singing about things pretty much anyone can relate to.