Aimee Mann - Can't You Tell - Non-Album Tracks (2013-2018)

I've wanted to post the next in my series of Aimee Mann stray tracks albums for some time now. But there was a problem: a bunch of the songs had poor sound quality. I waited, hoping to find better versions, but it became clear eventually that wasn't happening. Then a solution came to me: I rearranged the songs for the next two stray tracks albums so that one of them was all the excellent sounding songs and the other was all the poorer sounding ones. It turns out there were just enough for a decent length album of each. So this is the album of songs that sound great.

I think Aimee Mann is an excellent songwriter. But all too often, her studio albums have suffered from a certain kind of sameness, with the songs being serious and having similar mid-tempos. So I actually find her stray tracks albums more interesting and listenable. She has a great sense of humor, and it shows up in some of these songs in a way you hardly ever see on her studio albums. Take for instance the song here "I'm Cured," which is a love song from the point of view of a cold virus infecting a person! It's amusing, yet it's also just a good, catchy song. Furthermore, most of the songs here are originals, but she varies things up some more with some choice covers: "Yesterday Once More" (by the Carpenters), "River" (by Joni Mitchell), and "Drive" (by the Cars). Plus, "TV Themes Medley" is a bunch of short snippets of covers of TV theme songs done together.

Most of the songs here have been officially released, with the usual mixture of bonus tracks, singles, various artists compilations, soundtracks, and appearances on other artist's albums. Two of the songs are officially unreleased ("Woe Is Me" and "TV Themes Medley"), but you wouldn't know it by the sound quality.

This album is 49 minutes long. If you're an Aimee Mann fan, I strongly suggest you get this. As for the other one with poorer sound quality that I'll be posting at the same time, that depends on what kind of sound quality standards you have.

Oh, and her song about Donald Trump, "Can't You Tell," is freaking brilliant political commentary, if you ask me. I included it on my three album collection of songs criticizing Trump that I posted here shortly before the 2020 presidential election, so you might be familiar with it already from that:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/10/various-artists-rock-trump-out-volumes_24.html

UPDATE: On September 1, 2021, I added the song "Swanee River" to this album. I'd been looking for this song for ages, and a commenter found it for me. It's a bonus track to her 2017 album "Mental Illness," but it must have only been on some limited editions, because it seems to be extremely rare.

01 There's Nothing Left to Do [Let's Make This Christmas Blue] (Both [Ted Leo & Aimee Mann])
02 Woe Is Me (Aimee Mann)
03 I'm Cured (Aimee Mann)
04 TV Themes Medley (Both [Ted Leo & Aimee Mann])
05 You're a Gift (Both [Ted Leo & Aimee Mann])
06 Can't You Tell (Aimee Mann)
07 Yesterday Once More (Aimee Mann)
08 Throw You Over (Aimee Mann)
09 Swanee River (Aimee Mann)
10 Baby Who Knows (Kimon Kirk with Aimee Mann)
11 Paper Boats (Aimee Mann)
12 River (Aimee Mann)
13 Drive (Aimee Mann)

https://www.imagenetz.de/fDF45

The cover art photo comes from a 2013 concert.