Countdown top ten 2000 continued
#3 Aimee Mann: Bachelor No.2 (or, the last remains of the dodo) (87)
Aimee Mann (excellent mailing list) recorded her album in 1999, released it in the US in 2000 and in Germany this year, so I guess it is ok to consider her record a 2000 vintage. And it is. When listening to this record I cannot refrain myself of thinking about Joni Mitchell (Jorn's portal), my favourite female songwriter. Aimee looks like her and writes similar songs from a very female point of view. Very emotional and clever stuff. She looks like an angel with her long blond hair and frail body. The song Susan reminded me so much of Amelia (from the superb Hejira) Joni's beautiful song on an unlucky relation about which she talks to her friend. Vapor trails appear in both songs and Aimee's story is the same: "I had some trouble with the goodbye / I checked my roman candle supply".

I have the impression that I have heard Aimee's voice before. Like her album which is an instant classic. As classic as Hejira. Her voice is like a blend of Karen Carpenter's for the poppier parts and Chrissie Hynde's for the rock element. It is crystal clear and warm at the same time. Bachelor no.2 is a Gesamtkunstwerk (synthesis of the arts) from the slightly green cover with the dodo, the lyric sheet with a small black and white drawing for each song, the lyrics itself, the song melodies and the voice. The melody, voice and lyrics are married like the bouquet, the colour and the taste of a great red wine. It is no coincidence that the stand-out single Red Vines also alludes to the alcoholic grape drink, like Joni Mitchell she would not mind to drink A Case of You. This music is perfect pop and perfect songwriting. And the songs are so varied and there is no weak track at all. The least convincing song is The Fall of the World's Own Optimist which Costello has co-written with her.

The meanings of her songs are like nuts in a nutshell and it is quite difficult to crack them. But when you succeed the nuts inside are bitter and sweet at the same time. I still have not opened most of them. One song I understood because she told us at the concert is Ghost World. It is about the first summer after high school when you still do not know where to go and what to do. A situation she has been in recently (she is 40 now). I guess I am still in that position: "And all that I need now / is someone with the brains / and the know-how / to tell me what I want". Another line from It Takes All Kinds about the disillusionment really touched me: "spreading the word / that you've become / what you hated". In Deathly from the Magnolia soundtrack the dying father says to his lost son: "Now that i've met you / would you object to / never seeing each other again". The last song You Do is a beautiful way to end this phantastic album. The remaining songs which I have not really decrypted up till now are like jam jars in my larder for the next winter.