Details
Track Listing
1. Freeway
2. Stranger Into Starman
3. Looking For Nothing
4. Phoenix
5. Borrowing Time
6. It's Over
7. 31 Today
8. Great Beyond, The
9. Medicine Wheel
10. Columbus Avenue
11. Little Tornado
12. True Believer
13. Ballantines
| Details | | Distributor: | n/a | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel: Aimee Mann (guitars, acoustic guitar); Jamie Edwards (keyboards); Paul Bryan (bass instrument, background vocals); Jay Bellerose (drums).
Recording information: The Sound Factory, Hollywood, CA.
With SMILERS, the woman who came in on the crest of the New Wave with 'Til Tuesday in the 1980s and helped make power pop cool as a solo artist in the '90s, moves one step away from her overt pop tendencies towards a more '70s singer/songwriter sound. While there are plenty of elegantly unfurled melodies and carefully constructed tunes here, these songs are less centered on hooks and snappy guitar riffs, and lean more towards a reflective, acoustic-based approach. Tunes like the sunny, synth-laced opener, "Freeway," will slake longtime Aimee Mann fans' pop thirst somewhat, but a 47-year-old troubadour sometimes has more in mind than a catchy refrain, as the soul-searching likes of "Thirty One Today" (which admittedly also sports some snazzy synth) and the almost Elton John-ish piano ballad, "Medicine Wheel," make clear.
Industry Reviews
3 stars out of 5 -- Mann is as literate as ever, a lyricist who takes great joy in language....Acoustic guitars, primitive organs and synths dominate the music, most effectively on 'Great Beyond' and 'Columbus Avenue'...
3.5 stars out of 5 -- [E]very song is a frippery-free guitar-bass-drums concoction graced with mournful melodies, and Mann's Raymond Carver-esque detailing...
Ranked #43 in Mojo's The 50 Best Albums Of 2008 -- [A]n eerily melancholy set of cautionary fairy tales...
4 stars out of 5 -- [The] quality levels remain uniformly high....Mann's voice is as appealing as warm honey, her songs smart and pithy.
[The album] draws attention to her lost-soul narratives....Her yarns prove just as lovely as they are doleful.
4 stars out of 5 -- [A] nuanced collection of mid-tempo '70s-pop-referencing tunes...
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