Aimee Mann (Reprise)
Album of the week
It was a demo copy of Mann's song "Deathly" ("Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing each other again?") that inspired her friend, director Paul Thomas Anderson, to make Magnolia, the angst-laden, three-hour-plus film about interconnected lives in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley that's now playing in theaters. And while the soundtrack also includes a handful of songs performed by other artists, the star of this unorthodox but engaging collection is the underappreciated Mann, once of the '80s band out of Boston, 'Til Tuesday. Here, Mann sings—in her intense, Cher-meets-Gloria-Estefan style—eight of her own brooding compositions, as well as a haunting version of Harry Nilsson's "One." The exposure she gleans from this CD—and the movie—should help her attain a level of success more commensurate with her considerable talent.
Bottom Line: Music that blooms long after the film it inspired fades from memory
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