Mann has gotten a lot of critical acclaim for her solo career, though her sales haven't been as great as they should be. However, a lot of people forget that she started out as the lead singer and main songwriter for the new wave band 'Til Tuesday back in the 1980s. I plan on posting a lot of albums of Mann's solo stuff. But I think before I do that, it makes sense to cover her 'Til Tuesday work.
Personally, I think 'Til Tuesday was very hit or miss. Sometimes, they came up with great songs, like their big hit "Voices Carry." Another example would be "Coming Up Close," which I'd consider one of the top five songs of Mann's entire career. "The Other End (Of the Telescope)," a song cowriten by Mann and Elvis Costello, is great too. But too often, the songs were just ordinary, and were marred by dated 1980s production values. So I've compiled my own 'Til Tuesday "best of" for people who don't want to own all three of their albums. There have been several official best ofs, but those have included some songs I don't like and left off some songs I do like.
In my opinion, Mann was still learning how to write and produce consistently excellent songs in her 'Til Tuesday years. This can be seen by the drastic improvement from the band's first album to their third one. The first album has the classic "Voices Carry" and not much else, while the third album has lots of good songs. So nearly half of this compilation comes from the third album.
It turns out 'Til Tuesday has lots of unreleased songs, at least an album's worth. I've listened to a bunch, and while they were as good as many of the songs on their albums, they didn't really stand out enough for me to include them here. But I did find one I like which I've included, called "Tension." If you want to hear more of their unreleased stuff, check out the band's live concerts on YouTube.
One song here, "Sign of Love," is credited to just Aimee Mann. But I think that's a mere technicality, since it was played in concert by 'Til Tuesday at the time, and sounds just like their other songs.
01 Love in a Vacuum [Demo] ('Til Tuesday)
02 Tension ('Til Tuesday)
03 Voices Carry ('Til Tuesday)
04 Coming Up Close ('Til Tuesday)
05 Have Mercy ('Til Tuesday)
06 What about Love ('Til Tuesday)
07 Yesterday ('Til Tuesday)
08 Do It Again ('Til Tuesday)
09 Sign of Love (Aimee Mann)
10 Everything's Different Now ('Til Tuesday)
11 Why Must I ('Til Tuesday)
12 J for Jules ('Til Tuesday)
13 [Believed You Were] Lucky ('Til Tuesday)
14 Limits to Love ('Til Tuesday)
15 The Other End [Of the Telescope] ('Til Tuesday)
https://www.imagenetz.de/ec74M
I made the cover art using a publicity photo of Aimee Mann from her 'Til Tuesday era.
I share your opinion of the Til Tuesday material. Her solo stuff on the other hand, is stellar, thanks again!
ReplyDeleteYeah, but some of her 'Til Tuesday songs are great, thus this album. For instance, in a much better world, "Coming Up Close" should have been a number one hit!
DeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot... her version of Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is excellent. It's the B side of the CD single of "I Should Have Known."
ReplyDeleteThanks. I've posted some solo Aimee Mann stuff, including an album that has Baby Blue on it:
Deletehttp://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/05/aimee-mann-baby-blue-various-songs-1992.html
Hi Paul,
ReplyDeletesince you like some feedback on the way you did your albums, here's mine on your 'Til Tueday album. We probably agree that the songs on their debut album weren't all that great, but unlike you I actually like the New Wave-y production. There's a spark to it that is missing from some of their later work.
Normally I agree that a chronological sequence to show the evolution of a band is the way to go, but since your selection is so heavily skewed towards the later, more mature stuff, it - for me - creates an imbalance. You might prefer "adult Aimee to "adolescent" Aimee (in terms of songwriting, not age), but I think there is one issue with that that also crops up on her albums (some of which I have and like of course): Too many same-sounding songs in the same mid tempo. In other words, "adult" Aimee sometimes gets dangerously close to AOR Aimee (in musical, not lyrical terms). And I think it really influences the listenability of the album in that your album gets a bit "soft" towards the middle and end with too many songs that sound okay by themselves, but sound too slick and samey bunched together.
I also wasn't a fan of the live track (with a rather dull, muffled sound) and its placing in between the two songs with the brightest and shiniest production.
So my choice was to make a comp that isn't chronological to get something more lively and especially more balanced.
I found a really well-sounding concert from 1986 (at the Ritz, NY, on 101 Guitars, check it out, it really is quite good) that has some of their unreleased-on-albums songs that I quite liked, if only for their livelier sound that would break up the slightly monotonous ballads clustered together. Plus a kick-ass version of "Don't Watch Me Bleed".
I also carried over two tracks from your "Baby Blue" collection, as these are demos from 1989 and thus belong to the Til Tuesday era rather than her solo years.
All together the comp runs a little long, almost up to the 80 minute limit. I could've lopped off the last three songs which were "take it or leave it" selections for me (and I only put that live song in there in need of a quicker, livelier song), but you know, in case of doubt I say "leave it".
So, to put this very long post short: Our Til Tuesday sensibilities don't quite align, even if we both love ourselves some Aimee Mann.
Anyhoo, for what it's worth, here's what I ended up with:
Voices Carry: The Best Of 'Til Tuesday (1984 – 1989)
01 Voices Carry
02 Everything's Different Now
03 Love In A Vacuum [demo]
04 Boy [live]
05 Coming Up Close
06 Do It Again
07 Why Must I
08 Just Like Me [live]
09 Sign Of Love
10 (Believed You Were) Lucky
11 Put On Some Speed [demo]
12 What About Love
13 Don't Watch Me Bleed [live]
14 The Other End (Of The Telescope)
15 Enough To Save You [live]
16 Truth On My Side [demo]
17 Have Mercy
18 Learning You By Heart [live]
19 J For Jules
20 Limits To Love
Interesting. I definitely love getting feedback like this. And I hear your points, esp. about Mann's music often sounding too "samey." I think that's her Achilles' heel. She really should do more to fix it, and it's easy to fix if one just throws in a song every now and then that sounds markedly different.
DeleteI disagree about including the two 1989 songs. Til Tuesday was done as a real band around then, but she continued to use the name for a while only because that would draw bigger crowds to her shows. In a similar way, Led Zeppelin was known as the "New Yardbirds" for a while when they first started out.
I generally prefer using a chronological order, but sometimes there's a good reason not to do that. This could be one of those times.
Anyway, why don't you put your files in a zip and upload them using Zippyshare or something like that, show the link here, and I'll give your mix a listen. Maybe it'll push me to make changes to my mix. And other people might want to hear it too. (By the way, if you haven't used Zippyshare, it's super easy. Takes like a minute.)
I actually like that it's skewed towards her later years, if only because most of my online digging has stuff from about '84 to '86, and I definitely agree that she'd properly found her voice after 'Welcome Home' (which is a shame because one of the best songs she ever released as part of Til Tuesday is 'Coming Up Close', and I would have loved to hear a re-recorded version with her more comfortable with hitting the higher notes).
DeleteI'd love for you to upload your songlist too, because I'm a massive fan of just collecting all of her stuff. I find it curious that neither you nor OP has included 'Yesterday', which actually did still have a proper studio release (afaik, because despite owning it on vinyl, I haven't actually been about to listen to it yet).
Still really happy to have all these people sharing Aimee's stuff - I'm glad she hasn't really had issues with leaks, but at the same time, she's an amazing songwriter, and was evidently very prolific, especially in her early days. It would be nice to hear some more of her stuff :)
In my opinion, not only did her voice improve, but her songwriting did too. By the way, I have two versions of "Coming Up Close" (which is an AWESOME song) done by Mann in her solo career. I'll post those eventually.
DeleteI don't have the studio version of "Yesterday." I didn't even know it exists, and I don't see any sign of it anywhere.
Speaking of very rare Mann stuff, would you have her song "Swanee River?" It's a bonus track for her 2012 album "Smiler." I can't find it.
Hi!
DeleteAhh that would be radical, thank you! I have a live version of yesterday – I'll post a link to the drive at the bottom – but I don't have the studio version because I don't have a record player that can record the audio to a PC. The actual record it's from is this one:
https://www.discogs.com/Til-Tuesday-%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%AB%E3%83%81%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA%E3%83%87%E3%82%A4-Coming-Up-Close-%E3%82%AB%E3%83%9F%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9/release/2962461
(sorry about the funky link – japanese symbols don't copy well)
And I hadn't heard of that song, and honestly, I've had difficulty getting her b-sides for Smilers as I live in Australia (I had to get an American friend to purchase 'Lullaby' for me and I paid her back). I do have her bonus tracks from Charmer (Brother's Keeper and Mea Culpa).
Actually, a brief google seems to be telling me that Swanee River is from Mental Illness. There is a bonus track on the Japanese version called 'Throw You Over', but as it's like $26USD I haven't bought it yet.
But here's the link to "Yesterday".
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HcVaty5VDM9GqU6dFNWOduhZB1_sG_sC
Thanks for that. I have "Throw You Over," "Mea Culpa," "Brother's Keeper" and a whole lot more. I'll post those here as I continue to post more Mann stuff. But I've been hesitating to move forward since I don't have "Swanee River."
DeleteYou can see that song discussed here:
http://www.unforumzed.com/showthread.php?300-Aimee-Mann/page29
Maybe you could try contacting the person there who claims to have an mp3 of it. That would be awesome if you could track it down.
Thanks for the link! I'll check it out. I did message a dude on discogs who has more aimee mann stuff than I do (which is a not insignificant amount). I'll keep looking and if I find anything I'll definitely comment here.
DeleteQuestion: do you have a copy of Mea Culpa that doesn't have clicks in it? Because I do not – the CD version and iTunes version both click. Actually, the entire Australian version of the Charmer album has clicks. It's just that I have the American version too, so I just use that for the other songs.
Good luck with your search. I just relistened to Mea Culpa and didn't hear any clicks. Give it a listen and see if I'm missing something:
Deletehttps://www69.zippyshare.com/v/5P6DJxrx/file.html
Just had a listen and it definitely still has the clicks but it's nowhere near as obvious as mine. Have a listen to this version – in particular, the very end when she sings "blood dripping down leaving trails in the snow", the harsh 'd' in dripping and 't' in 'trail' have the click.
DeleteWhere did you get your version from? Because I have both the Australian CD and from the Australian iTunes and both have the issue :(
Also, emailed a dude on discogs. He had no idea, so I straight up just... emailed Michael Hausman. I'll let you know how that goes I guess lol
and here is the link because I forgot to add it before rip
Deletehttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1I6HVWyqwshBnXBK-mzyiRY-fA-I5AZg8/view?usp=sharing
Maybe the clicks on "Mea Culpa" somehow got added on the airplane ride to Australia. ;)
DeleteHave you heard back on finding that song? Please let me know if/when you do. Thanks!
lol perhaps xD
DeleteI haven't heard back yet, and honestly, I don't expect to. But I will definitely let you know if I do – and I'll keep searching for that song, too, through other avenues :)
And now you have Swanee River
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-tgER3Xz7cG
you are a beautiful soul and i cannot say how much it means to me and probably like. half a dozen other people that you both have this track and chose to share it ;_;
Deletethank you
Thanks a ton for sharing that! I'm listening to it right now, and it's a really nice song. I'll add it in to one of the Mann stray tracks albums when I get back from my vacation.
DeleteACK! Man, I'd loooooove to hear Swanee River but the link is expired. Any chance for a re-up? Please??
DeleteThanks for commenting on this. I'd assumed I'd added that song to one of her stray tracks albums, but it looks like I didn't. And although I downloaded the song at the time, I had my hard drive crash a couple of months later, and I lost it. So if anyone else has this, please let me know. This time, I'll be sure to add it in.
DeleteNew link
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-nrmSLxC6pG
Did you lose any of your projects in the crash? I hope not.
Wow, what a beautiful song. THANK YOU A-Mfan!
DeleteThanks again, A-Mfan!
DeleteAs far as losing stuff, thankfully no. I had two hard drives at the time, and my entire music collection was on the one that didn't crash. But "Swanee River" was a rare care of something I downloaded to the other drive, then had that drive crash before I could move it to the music hard drive.
By the way, note that I just added Swanee River to the stray tracks album "Can't You Tell." So hopefully it won't fall into obscurity again.
DeleteThanks good and glad I can help. It's the least I can do for all the work you do here.
DeleteI second that. Thanks Paul, your work is truly amazing!
Deleteand almost nobody knows ...that before Til Tuesday there was "The Young SNakes" and yes Aimee Man was in it - bass. Sort of a jazz pop combo from Boston.
ReplyDeleteI own 'The Young Snakes ft. Aimee Mann' and I can confirm that it is literally just noise it's the worst thing I've ever heard xD All the sounds sound the same and it sounds like each band member is playing their own song with no thought to the entire unit.
DeleteI love Aimee Mann, but I unequivocally hate The Young Snakes xD
I have to agree with Fruipit. I've heard the stuff from that band, and I found it "not ready for prime time."
DeleteEverything's Different Now was by far the best album and sadly they knew it was coming to an end as with her relationship and just crushed it as a unofficial farewell. The one song I would add to any list is "Crash and Burn" from Everything's Different.. her voice is so crisp, and lyrics are so spot on with a trying to change in a failing relationship
ReplyDeleteI wasn't familiar with that song, but it's a good one. If other people like the idea, I could add it to the album.
DeleteI only included one, "Tension." You can find others on YouTube. I'm not such a big fan that I wanted to collect absolutely everything from them.
ReplyDeleteOkay all...so what's the trick? I can't get anything to download. Only reloads of some pretty shady pages/sites? Please help.
ReplyDeleteThank you
ironically, the "download here" button is the actual "download here" button, unlike most other torrent sites, and it isn't trying to trick you.
Deletethat being said, I've found I've had to click it twice (at least) to get it to work most times.
Nice collection. I saw them when the opened for Hall & Oates in 85.
ReplyDeleteHi A-Mfan, could you please post the link again for "Swanee River"? I just find out about it but can't find it anywhere. - longtime AM fan myself, going back to the EDN days.
ReplyDeleteIt's been added to this collection. Enjoy! https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/05/aimee-mann-cant-you-tell-various-songs.html
DeleteThanks so much! That was the only song she's released that I'd never heard (except for the B-side studio version of "Yesterday" on the Japan "Coming Up Close" single).
DeleteOne note on "Swanee River" -- from what I read it was a bonus track meant for 'Charmer' not 'Mental Illness', according to https://www.connecticutmag.com/arts/q-a-aimee-mann/article_9e40a5e4-f71d-5474-be1a-b9b91072faf8.html (link to that 2012 article is on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charmer_(Aimee_Mann_album))
You've never heard Yesterday? Well, today's your lucky day! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHmRPX-sG4s
DeleteThanks for the link! Nice to hear the studio version. I've always liked the way Aimee's voice sounded on 'Welcome Home' and 'Everything's Different Now' -- they did something to her voice, "sweetened it" a little compared to some of her live vocals. Always glad she stopped using that high-pitched affect from her earlier days. She has a great voice and when she just sang naturally it has always been the best.
Delete(not sure why it says my reply was published as 'Unknown' ... it was me, Michael-TT_AM-fan
ReplyDeleteBoy I wish there was an option to edit a post.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny how different peoples’ tastes can be. I prefer the New Wave sound myself. My version of a Best Of would be (in purposely random order):
Crash And Burn
Love In A Vacuum (Single Mix)
(Believed You Were) Lucky
Sleep
Sleeping And Waking
Looking Over My Shoulder (Single Mix)
No More Crying
Rip In Heaven
Voices Carry
On Sunday
No One Is Watching You Now
Maybe Monday
Yesterday (B-Side)
Long Gone (Buddy)
Have Mercy
Coming Up Close
David Denies
How Can You Give Up?
'J' For Jules
I Could Get Used To This