SACD / DSD

Aimee Mann – Lost In Space (2002) [MFSL 2003]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 42:56 minutes | Scans included | 1,77 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 871 MB
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab # UDSACD 2021 | Genre: Rock

It is, in a sense, a trick of the times that Lost in Space conveys such a vivid visual quality; thanks to the high profile given to her music on the Magnolia soundtrack, it’s now impossible to miss the narrative strength of Mann’s writing. The mood throughout this album is autumnal, with filmy keyboard beds and expressive shifts between major and minor enhancing the subdued eloquence of her lyrics. (A major chord at the end of “Guys Like Me offers an ironic twist on the smug portraiture that precedes it.) Though recorded free of the legal snarls that plagued most of her previous albums, Lost in Space seems to be mainly about alienation and, at least as a metaphor, addiction. The latter point is made clear in “This Is How It Goes,” with its assertions that “it’s all about drugs, it’s all about shame.” But it’s clear as well when Mann offers to “be your heroine” — or is it heroin? — amidst slithering slide guitars and rainy gray textures on “High on Sunday 51,” or confesses to seeking salvation where “It’s Not.” Recorded largely in Ryan Freeland’s home studio, some of these songs receive discreet electronic treatments — moments of abstract noise whose application always enhances the otherwise low-tech arrangements. For all the shadows that stretch across Lost in Space, what lingers in the wake of this music is the realization that Mann remains spectacularly underrated among contemporary songwriters; no one surpasses her as a master of poetic regret, and few albums examine the peculiar beauty of depression with the skill she brings to Lost in Space.

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Aimee Mann – Bachelor No.2 Or The Last Remains of the Dodo (2000) [MFSL 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 49:14 minutes | Scans included | 1,98 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 967 MB
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab # UDSACD 2025 | Genre: Rock

It’s no shock that Aimee Mann’s Bachelor No. 2, or the last remains of the dodo sounds identical to her songs for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, since it was written and recorded at roughly the same time (the two records share four songs). Yet Bachelor No. 2 is hardly a retread, having its own identity and flow; it’s more intimate, a little more fragile, a little more craftmanslike — more like an Aimee Mann record, really. That, of course, is not a bad thing, especially since Mann has never sounded as assured as she does here, nor has she ever had a better set of songs. Surprisingly, this cohesive album was produced by a handful of different producers and Mann collaborated with three songwriters (Jon Brion being the most noteworthy of both categories). It sounds like the work of one writer and one production team, which is testament to the fact that Mann has finally found the ideal sound to match her literate, mildly self-deprecating, clever, melancholy, melodic style. Bachelor No. 2 is crisp, clear, and direct, but deceptive. It’s hardly a guitar-and-voice record, there are layers of details in the arrangements, particularly in how the various guitars and keyboards weave seamlessly together. There has never been a better sound for her songs, and she’s never been more consistently compelling as a writer either. To call Bachelor No. 2 a masterpiece may be overstating the matter somewhat, since an album this unassuming (but not unconfident) is too intimate to be labeled as such, yet it isn’t hyperbole to call it the finest record Mann has made to date.

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