Monkey with a Typewriter

She's always there at the end to lead me. Yes, it sounds like something a stalker might say. But stick with me here... I write to music. I simply can't do it if everything is purely quiet. I have a select few albums that I listen to repeatedly. Over time, new albums are added, old favorites briefly retired. I listen to them until I know them by heart, so that I'm driven by the rhythm, enjoying the aural scenery while I focus on driving. There are some artists that simply never leave the rotation. And the only one whose albums are ALL in the stack is Aimee Mann. I start almost every script, novel, or short story with her. And inevitably, when I get stuck, when I'm at that last ten pages, or staring across the chasm between me and the ending (which I always swear is only ten pages away, really), she's there to lead me. I don't know how she does it. The first note hits. Her melancholy voice somehow bypasses my ears and saturates my brain and my heart. And it just goes. Chasm? What chasm?

Bachelor no. 2 is the disc that always gets me there. Little of the driving rock that can be found on her earlier albums is present here (and don't get me wrong, I LOVE her earlier stuff...that's how I begin everything I write). Here, she has found her niche. Her songs always manage to make you smile while breaking your heart. She writes the kind of thing in two lines that most playwrights try to do in two acts, from the classic line in Deathly: "Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing each other again?" (which spawned the fabulous John C Reilly storyline in Magnolia), to "...but you're mistaking speed/ for getting what you need/ and never even noticing. you never do arrive..." from Driving Sideways. Beckett couldn't have said it better. Anyway. Let me finish erecting this pedestal.
Tracks you gotta hear:
1. How am I Different
2. Nothing is Good Enough
3. Red Vines
4. The Fall of the World's Own Optimist
5. Satellite
6. Deathly
7. Ghost World
8. Calling it Quits
9. Driving Sideways
10. Just Like Anyone
11. Susan
12. It Takes All Kinds
13. You Do

Oh... did I just list all of the tracks? I DID! THAT'S how good she is.