Aimee Mann had been kicked around by the music industry for most of the 1990s after early success with Til Tuesday. Her excellent solo albums, 1993’s Whatever and 1995’s I’m with Stupid, received good reviews but didn’t break out; they were also not supported by Geffen, the label that released them. In 1999, after Geffen refused to release Mann‘s completed follow-up Bachelor No. 2, claiming they didn’t hear any hits, she was released from her contract.
For many artists, this is the sad ending to the story, but not for Mann. She started selling homemade EPs of the songs on tour. Then, she unexpectedly found herself back in the spotlight after several of her songs were featured in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film Magnolia, the director’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to his breakthrough hit Boogie Nights. Anderson is a long-time fan, and he continually cited Mann’s music as an inspiration for Magnolia, even saying that his Oscar-nominated script was an adaptation of Aimee Mann’s songs.
The Magnolia soundtrack put Mann back in the conversation, which must have been satisfying since most of the songs used in the film were written for Bachelor No. 2, except “You Do” and “Save Me”, a moving ballad about feeling unlovable but making room for some hope. It is brilliantly deployed in the film’s emotional final scene. “Save Me” was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar, ultimately losing to a thoroughly forgettable song from Disney’s Tarzan by Phil Collins.
The song was also nominated for the Best Female Pop Vocal Grammy. Two other songs on Magnolia had appeared elsewhere, too. Her cover of “One” was originally part of a Harry Nilsson tribute album, and “Wise Up”, which several cast members sing together in a pivotal scene in the film, was written for Jerry Maguire but was left out. Seriously, Mann could not catch a break for much of the decade until Magnolia.
Magnolia went gold, and Mann made the rounds as an Oscar nominee, sharing her story of being knocked around the music industry. We used to love an underdog story in this country, so Bachelor No. 2 was highly anticipated. It was released in early 2000 on Mann’s label, SuperEgo Records, to critical acclaim and sales of over 270,000 copies. In 2020, a reissue added the songs from Magnolia that were not on the original release.
Despite the album’s subtitle, Or the Last Remains of the Dodo, this was the start of a remarkable run of acclaimed releases from Mann that helped her re-establish herself as a critically and commercially successful career artist on her own terms. Unshackled from expectations and label drama, Mann has continued to deliver record after record of memorable songs.
Sonically, Bachelor No. 2 isn’t that far removed from Mann’s excellent previous efforts. Mann once again collaborated with Jon Brion, who also worked with her on Whatever and I’m With Stupid. An in-demand producer, session musician, and composer, Brion also wrote the score for Magnolia and several other noteworthy films, including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Heart Huckabees, and Lady Bird.
Brion’s resume also includes production work for Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Mac Miller, and Robyn Hitchcock. In 2001, he self-released his own power pop masterclass, Meaningless. In the late 1990s, Mann, Brion, and other like-minded Los Angeles-based musicians, including Rufus Wainwright, Mann’s husband Michael Penn, and Elliott Smith, regularly held court at Largo, collaborating on shows and working on each other’s records.
Many of Bachelor No. 2‘s songs directly address Mann’s frustration with Geffen, but with her gift for lyricism, they also could be read as about any dysfunctional relationship. Opener “How Am I Different?” is one of those tracks, as is “Nothing Is Good Enough”, which is a response to a Geffen exec’s suggestion that she should collaborate with Diane Warren to craft a hit. Mann’s wariness is apparent throughout Bachelor No. 2, and it’s conceivable that the label heard these songs and realized how many were about their fraught relationship with Mann, too.
However, it is not hard to imagine a world where several songs on Bachelor No. 2 would have found an audience, as evidenced by the performance of the Magnolia soundtrack. That makes the despair she expresses in a song like “Nothing Is Good Enough” all the more heartbreaking, but knowing how the story continues makes it a little easier to take.
Musically, Aimee Mann’s work is too well-crafted to compete with flavors of the month for radio space. She takes inspiration from the fabulous 1970s singer-songwriter heyday. A song like the country-tinged “Driving Sideways” would fit perfectly into rotation on an AM radio station, one of those gentle but cutting songs where you could be lulled into singing along before you realize the despair in the words.
Elvis Costello reportedly helped her finish “The Fall of the World’s Own Optimist”. Mann writes songs for old souls, which wasn’t what was selling in the 1990s. Her exploration of sadness and grief would be a lot to take if not for the bright arrangements in songs like “Momentum” and the humor she injects: “Even when it’s approaching torture, I’ve got my routine.”
Aimee Mann has always been gifted at storytelling, even as far back as her previous band Til Tuesday’s signature song “Voices Carry”. Her characters are sharply observed, and she takes down her antagonists with creative barbs, as she does on “Red Vines”. However, she also has a gift for empathizing with her more downtrodden characters, as on the self-protective subject of “Deathly”.
In Magnolia, its opening line is spoken by Claudia Wilson Gator (Melora Walters) to Jim (John C. Reilly), a cop who has asked her on a date after responding to a noise complaint at her apartment. Elsewhere, she takes on the character of directionless young Billy on “Ghost World”, fresh out of high school without a plan. “Susan” is about a friend stuck watching another friend make bad relationship choices. Sometimes, Mann’s characters don’t find a way out of their troubling situations; sometimes, they do. Either way, she writes them with empathy.
Since Bachelor No. 2, Mann has released new albums every few years, with predictably excellent reviews and consistently full rooms when she tours. She even released a Christmas record and frequently does a holiday-themed tour, bringing along friends to help spread the cheer. Lost in Space, the follow-up to Bachelor No. 2, was a darker set of songs dealing with addiction to love and other substances.
The Forgotten Arm arrived in 2005, followed by @#%&*! Smilers in 2008 and Charmer in 2012. Mann won a Grammy for Best Folk Album for 2017’s Mental Illness. Her most recent collection, Queens of the Summer Hotel, is a lush, Burt Bacharach-leaning song cycle inspired by the book Girl, Interrupted.
Mann has also been named one of the greatest living songwriters by National Public Radio and Paste. Much like the subjects of her songs, she is a survivor, wizened by experience but willing to keep going with a bit of hope, and Bachelor No. 2 is Aimee Mann operating at the peak of her powers.