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Lost in Space

Aimee Mann - Lost in Space Audio CD

A fair review of the Aimee Mann "Lost in Space" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Aimee Mann reviews here, or go back to the Aimee Mann tabs.

Band: Aimee Mann
Title: Lost in Space
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-12-09
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Humpty Dumpty 2: High On Sunday 51 3: Lost In Space 4: This Is How It Goes 5: Guys Like Me 6: Pavlov's Bell 7: Real Bad News 8: Invisible Ink 9: Today's The Day 10: The Moth 11: It's Not 12: Real Bad News (Live) 13: The Moth (Live) 14: This Is How It Goes (Live) 15: The Scientist (Live) 16: Invisible Ink (Live) 17: It's Not (BBC) 18: Nightmare Girl (B-side) 19: Backfire (B-side) 20: Fighting The Stall (Unreleased) 21: Observatory (Unreleased)

Aimee Mann at her best
This collection ranks as a classic with harvest and Who's Next. Lost in Space is a musical work where everything comes together in perfect balance. The lyrics paint clear naratives and the instrumentation doen not overwhelm the singing. Ms mann's voice was made for these tunes. The extra C. D. really adds to the collection and provides a glimpse of her live show. Which you have to see to really apreciate. I was fortunate enough to see the Lost in Space tour at the 9:30 club in Washington, D. C. which made it very nice indeed! I also saw the recent most tour supporting *#@! Smilers (at the Rechter theatre in Baltimore, another small venue) and while I can say she gets better every time Lost in Space will always be a special time in her career. .

One of the few albums that is consistently good all the way through
" This is one of my all-time favorite albums, and in my view is her best overall. I really like "Lost in Space," especially this reissued version with bonus songs like "Nightmare Girl. The songs are impeccable, her singing is sardonic and laden with irony, and the flow of the CD is unmatched. Its folky with rock elements, but not just acoustic or whatever, its got rock guitar and a couple solos. As I listen to it right now, I think that its very hard to make music and write songs that are as consistently good as the ones on this album. This CD grabbed my attention from the first listen, and I haven't stopped enjoying it since. I recommend it to anyone no matter what kind of music you listen to regularly. I don't know if this expanded CD is good for the casual fan though, unless you really like this album like I do. I love songs like "Nightmare Girl" and all that, but you might just prefer the regular CD to the 2CD set. Anyway, listen to Aimee Mann because she makes great music! .

A great album augmented with great extras.
2" and "I'm With Stupid", and suffers in comparison. Aimee Mann's "Lost in Space" had the unfortunate problem of being released after the fantastic "Bachelor No. Its not that its not a superb album, on the contrary, there's quite a bit of great material here, its just that it had a lot to live up to.

What's most immediately noticable is a feeling of relaxation and confidence in these pieces, be it the magnificent throbbing "Humpty Dumpty" (with completely magical vocal harmonies), the subtlety of the playing on "This is How It Goes", the incredible guitars, strings and vocals of "Pavlov's Bell" or the unnervingly brilliant countryish "The Moth", it sounds as though Mann has finally found the sound she wants.

There is some experimentation that goes awry on this one ("High on Sunday 51" is Aimee does blues and doesn't quite work, and "Real Bad News"'s pacing makes it lethargic), and there's enough unmemorable material to impact opinion of the album, but again, this may be a side effect of coming after two great albums, and there's certainly enough good material here to make it worth the investment.

On this edition, there's an additional CD of live material, b-sides and unreleased tracks. The live take of "Real Bad News" alone makes the extra disc worth having, delicately performed with what sounds like a ukelele anchoring it and while "The Moth" doesn't quite translate live as well as the studio take, the remainder of the live tracks are consistently high quality. The b-sides ("Nightmare Girl" and "Backfire") are both pretty much throwaway "Fighting the Stall" and "Observatory" are significantly better-- the former has some great vocal arrangements, the latter is just a superb pop song. The album closes with a live on the BBC version of "It's Not" that, while superior to the studio version, still does little for me.

This package is a great value-- I gave the album four stars, but this set gets five. Highly recommended, even if you have the album.

Special Edition: Perfect pairing of Aimee and Seth
When I bought Magnolia, I also bought the LIS special edition, and I'm extrememly glad I did. I've just (re)-discovered Aimee Mann, after finally managing to procure the Magnolia soundtrack and cluing in to the fact that she was the lead singer from Til Tuesday, a favorite band of mine while I was in high school.

Often I find that musicians kind of run out of steam after a while and end up repeating themselves, producing watered-down versions of the hits that made them famous, but Mann just seems to get better. Pavlov's Bell and the Moth are personal favorites of mine, but truthfully, every track is extremely strong. It was also great to hear the unreleased tracks on the second CD.

I actually had to sit and listen to this album a couple of times for me to really get a grasp on how great it was. That's kind of how Lost In Space is, it takes time to sink in completely.

But what I also loved about this special edition release was the inclusion of more of Seth's art, in the form of a mini-comic and illustrations for each song. I used to enjoy reading his comic Palookaville and I have to say that the style and content of his work jibes perfectly with Aimee's sound. He's done stuff for her website too, which looks great. I'm normally not much of a packaging whore, but I really enjoyed the way this special edition was put together.

If you haven't gotten Lost In Space yet, fork over the extra few bucks and get the special edition release, it's worth it.

I can't wait until her new album, The Forgotten Arm, comes out in May!.

Unique

An amazing album! Everyone needs to hear it!!!!. This artist cannot be put in any one catagory, but rather she stands alone and shines like a burning sun.

You can see a complete list of all Aimee Mann discography, or go back to the Aimee Mann tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.