Aimee Mann - @#%&*! Smilers
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Free Music Notes for @#%&*! Smilers
Free Music Review: A HIT!
Hit: 4 Stars
As I play a new album, I make a list of the songs I really like. Then I download those songs into my iTunes "music." 5 of the 13 songs on this one made it to the download, and the rest of them are good songs too.
I'm sure you can listen to snippets through Amazon, and this is not one of those albums whose snippets sound good, and then it comes in the mail, and you think "what the hell did I like about this CD? Another aluminum beverage coaster." No, it sounds wonderful when your super saver Amazon envelope arrives days later.
This is one real fine musician. Straight ahead. No frills. No gimmicks. No cheap shots. This music will last. I don't know much about Mann, except that I like her sound and her skill. I'm persuaded.
Free Music Review: Best Aimee Mann CD I know.
Hit: 4 Stars
Very accesible collection of songs... almost mainstream. Especially the first on the cd. It's rocky, in a Mann-way offcourse. This album is really getting better every time I listen to it. I expect it to be her most succesfull one. Word of mouth should help it along in the years to come. Very surprising catchy cd from Miss Mann. Looking forward to her next one. Artwork in the booklet is wonderfull too !!!Free Music Review: Make It Go Twice the Speed
Hit: 3 Stars
Yeah, I'm a big fan of Aimee Mann - but not a huge fan of '@#%&*! Smilers' ......and you just know I want to be.
Something about it isn't pulling me in. Yes, there are certain songs I really like and play over and over, but then it hits a certain track or tracks an my interest wanes. That can't be good - right?
I keep reading reviews (not the amazon ones, but trade publications) that say it is her best album yet - and I keep wondering 'what am I missing here?'.
Sure she switched it up a bit - gone are the electric guitars and more moogs, wurlitzers and strings, but that's not making it a better album. To be fair, those items are not making it a worse one either. Actually, the synths make the disk have some 'Lost in Space' tendencies - not such a bad thing since I like that disk a lot.
While there are really good songs on the disk, there is something on here I never expected: throw away songs. I can't think of a disk she's done (ok, maybe her debut one, 'Whatever') that had a song I would go out of my way to skip over. 'Smilers' has a few of them ("Phoenix" or "Medicine Man" anyone? - and how does the latter song intro not sound like 1976 Elton John?). Not good.
I concede that some of this might grow on me over time, but I've had the disk in continual rotation for three weeks and not much is growing on me - past the keepers like "Little Tornadoes", "Freeway", "Thirty One Today", "The Great Beyond" and "Borrowing Time".
I still like Mann and think that she is a more than competent singer/songwriter/musician - but this disk isn't displaying it.
Free Music Review: Solid workmanship, but a tad pale
Hit: 3 Stars
Smilers sounds like comfortable songwriting, comfortable arrangements. Where is the bite, the passion, the variety?
Aimee can produce great work. But where on Smilers is there anything so pretty and cleverly snotty as Amateur (from I'm With Stupid), or infectiously jangly as 50 Years After The Fair? Where is anything so biting and punk as Long Shot, or sweet and heartfelt as Mr. Harris?
Inevitably one must compare the present record with her past artistic successes. Stylistic differences aside, differences in instrumentation aside, I am not hearing the brilliance here that I am used to from her previous work up to Lost In Space. It sounds like an album that got cranked out because it was time to crank out another album.
I can't criticize those who enjoy this. I disagree that this is anywhere near her best work. The songs aren't bad. But to me they sound more like what would pass for bonus tracks or b-sides on previous albums and singles. Aimee sounds like she's reached a point in her career where she needs to be shaken up artistically, challenged to explore new heights and depths. Smilers just glides rock solid right down the middle of the freeway. What this music needs is some hairpin turns and steep grades and potholes and getting the wheels over close to the edge of the cliff so we can look down and have a thrill or two. That's what Aimee has led me to expect from her music, and I'm not getting it this time.
Free Music Review: Something's missing...
Hit: 3 Stars
After Aimee's last fabulous release Forgotten Arm I was reluctantly excited to get this new cd...excited for new music from her but reluctantly anticipating somewhat of a letdown. I got pretty much what I expected. This is not a bad cd by any means but I didn't find anything special in it. Maybe omitting electric guitars from the cd takes too much away from Aimee's vintage sound or maybe an overall lack of focus fails to give the music cohesiveness- it's hard to say what's missing from this cd.
With that said, track 7 (31 Today) has a unique sound and may be the best song on the cd, the album artwork is great as usual, and there isn't a bad song on the cd as the music overall is very good...just not special like her last album.
Also, this is cd that really needs to be played on a high quality system in order to appreciate the many subtle instruments...the music loses alot on an average stereo.