Aimee Mann biography

Aimee Mann was nearly on the verge of super-stardom during the 1980's with her post-new wave group Til Tuesday. MTV latched onto her but no one seemed to be able to take her spiky hair, and in turn Mann herself, seriously. She split the band up after three albums and has spent the past 15 years forging a solo career.

It looked like she hit gold with her debut release, ‘Whatever’, in 1993. Critics and musicians alike praised the album to high heaven and placed it, without reservation, in their Best Of lists. Yet radio and the public didn’t pick up on it and this undoubted gem remains a hidden treasure.

Mann’s career went from bad to worse. Her record company, Imago, filed for bankruptcy as she prepared to release her follow-up album. A lengthy battle ensued with Imago not allowing Mann to put out music. Finally, she won her freedom (and signed with a DGC Records) but ‘I’m With Stupid’ once again suffered from positive reviews and poor sales. Perhaps it was appropriate that the kick-start to her solo career came not from the music industry but film. Director and auteur Paul Thomas Anderson not only incorporated eight Mann tunes on the soundtrack to 1999’s ‘Magnolia’ but also specifically worked from her lyrics to create the film’s characters and situations. Mann was nominated for an Oscar for ‘Save Me’, a title that adequately sums up what the film did for her.

By now fed up of the music business, Mann launched her own label, SuperEgo Records’ and only sold ‘Bachelor No 2’ at her concerts or via her website. Two years later, in 2002, the downbeat ‘Lost In Space’ came out but not to the same acclaim as 2005’s ‘The Forgotten Arm’. The concept album (two lovers meet at the Virginia state fair and run away) also illustrated (literally in the sleeve) Mann’s love of boxing (the title itself is a reference) and goes to show that when Mann has been backed into a corner over the course of her career, she’s come out fighting.