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Album Description: Limited edition book packaging of her 2008 album, Aimee's seventh solo release to date. The album is a return to form after the artistic detours of 2005's concept album The Forgotten Arm and 2006's Christmas CD One More Drifter in the Snow. Featuring thirteen new original songs, producer Paul Bryan describes the record as "deceptively powerful...very rich and grand-sounding." The songs range from the stripped-down-to-basics of "Columbus Avenue," to the almost Cars-esque synth-pop of "Freeway," alongside the classic Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell-era "Phoenix," and the hushed creepiness of "Little Tornado." The final song "Ballantines" is a duet with Sean Hayes complete with barroom piano and trombone section. All songs were penned by Mann with the exception of "True Believer" which was co-written with fellow singer-songwriter Grant Lee Phillips. Amazon.co.uk : Despite that unwieldy, rather craven title, @#%&! Smilers has already been acclaimed by some critics as the best record in Aimee Mann’s long career. Few fans will be disappointed. The opening "Freeway" may be built around a fairly slight play on words ("you got a lot of money but you can’t afford the freeway" goes the chorus) but the nagging melody and expansive synth-laden arrangement, reminiscent of her East Coast counterparts and fellow suburban critics Fountains of Wayne, is nigh on irresistible. "Stranger Into Starman" is a mere snippet, and all the better for its brevity, while "Looking For Nothing" is a perfect example of the southern Californian blankness Mann has captured for years now. The lush, orchestrated country-rock of "Phoenix" rhymes the title with "Kleenex" and truly captures the mood of someone leaving for good. Sean Hayes sounds uncannily like a boozy Antony Hegarty on the deceptively jolly closer "Ballantines," named for a whisky, while author Dave Eggers picks up a credit for his rather good "whistling" on the gloomy, undeniably pretty "Little Tornado." The painfully detailed "Thirty One Today," a distant memory for Mann, is another successful attempt to voice dissatisfaction. Only the chirpy horns on the admonishing "Borrowing Time" actually lighten the mood. Smilers is an excellent record, cleverly thought out throughout. But the smiles here are rueful at best -- Steve Jelbert Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-30
Eight Times...
I have no idea why, but this record and "The Forgotten Arm" absolutely clicked for me after eight listens. It's like the entire album opened up and demanded my attention. Before that point, they sounded like a batches of similar songs.
I can't think of another artist where this is the case, but if you're finding this record to be just "OK" after a few listens, keep playing it. It's another amazing disc from one of the best songwriters around. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-27
More of the same? Yeah - Another GREAT album
I'm with the camp that says if we're talking about Aimee Mann, more of the same is a good thing! There really is something going around these days about change for change sake in popular culture - the Presidential election makes that chrystal clear. But when someone is as unique, dynamic, and fascinating as Aimee Mann (or Hillary, for that matter), what's disappointing about getting to see more of her signature style?
In fact, this album is Mann's most whole work since Lost in Space, and outside of that album, it is definately her best. Seamless? Oh yes, that just about says it. One after the other, they're all such good songs: Looking for Nothing, Pheonix, It's Over, Columbus Avenue, Little Tornado - all five of these made a big impression on me- and the remainder are all good in their own right. In fact, the only song that I am not so big on is "Freeway" - it's just not as rich as the others. But when "Freeway" is your most marginal song, well, that's a pretty darn good album.
Sure, it's all about loss and isolation - but she's still speaking very poignantly about those subjects. I'm not tired of it at all. Just waiting for the next intriguing metaphor. My favorite on this album:
"I got high on the ferris wheel/
Didn't like how it made me feel/
So alone/
Another cog in the loading zone."
Admirable how she's still able to pitch out such images so effortlessly. How could anyone want to change that formula? Just give me more of it, please! I'm loving it. Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-22
Something's missing...
After Aimee's last fabulous release Forgotten Arm I was reluctantly excited to get this new cd...excited for new music from her but reluctantly anticipating somewhat of a letdown. I got pretty much what I expected. This is not a bad cd by any means but I didn't find anything special in it. Maybe omitting electric guitars from the cd takes too much away from Aimee's vintage sound or maybe an overall lack of focus fails to give the music cohesiveness- it's hard to say what's missing from this cd.
With that said, track 7 (31 Today) has a unique sound and may be the best song on the cd, the album artwork is great as usual, and there isn't a bad song on the cd as the music overall is very good...just not special like her last album.
Also, this is cd that really needs to be played on a high quality system in order to appreciate the many subtle instruments...the music loses alot on an average stereo. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-21
Make It Go Twice the Speed
Yeah, I'm a big fan of Aimee Mann - but not a huge fan of '@#%&*! Smilers' ......and you just know I want to be.
Something about it isn't pulling me in. Yes, there are certain songs I really like and play over and over, but then it hits a certain track or tracks an my interest wanes. That can't be good - right?
I keep reading reviews (not the amazon ones, but trade publications) that say it is her best album yet - and I keep wondering 'what am I missing here?'.
Sure she switched it up a bit - gone are the electric guitars and more moogs, wurlitzers and strings, but that's not making it a better album. To be fair, those items are not making it a worse one either. Actually, the synths make the disk have some 'Lost in Space' tendencies - not such a bad thing since I like that disk a lot.
While there are really good songs on the disk, there is something on here I never expected: throw away songs. I can't think of a disk she's done (ok, maybe her debut one, 'Whatever') that had a song I would go out of my way to skip over. 'Smilers' has a few of them ("Phoenix" or "Medicine Man" anyone? - and how does the latter song intro not sound like 1976 Elton John?). Not good.
I concede that some of this might grow on me over time, but I've had the disk in continual rotation for three weeks and not much is growing on me - past the keepers like "Little Tornadoes", "Freeway", "Thirty One Today", "The Great Beyond" and "Borrowing Time".
I still like Mann and think that she is a more than competent singer/songwriter/musician - but this disk isn't displaying it. Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-21
Return to form for Aimee Mann
Let me state upfront that as a longtime fan of Aimee Mann, I was quite disappointed with her previous 'regular' studio album, 2005's "The Forgotten Arm", which simply did not connect for me (I am putting aside Aimee's beautiful and regretfully overlooked Christmas album, 2006's "One More Drifter in the Snow"). So I was somewhat apprehensive of the new album. I am glad to tell you that my apprehension was misplaced.
"Smilers" (13 tracks; 46 min.) finds Aimee returning to form, to give us what I feel is her best album since 2000's "Bachelor No. 2". The album starts off with a fantastic "Freeway" (1st radio single), as good (and commercially accessible) as Aimee has sounded in ages. But the great tracks follow one after another, from the pensive "Stranger Into Starman", to the harder charging "31 Today", to "The Great Beyond" to the piano-heavy "Medicine Wheel" (reminding my of Fiona Apple) to the sublime "Little Tornado", and on and on. In fact, this album plays like an entity, a body of work, and flows beautifully from start to finish, without weak tracks really. What a return to form!
For whatever reason, I had never had an opportunity to see Aimee in concert, but that was finally rectified when I saw her put on a fabulous 75 min. set recently at Bonnaroo. Of course Aimee covered a number of tracks from this album, but she also mixed it up with a fantastic cover of Elton John's "My Father's Gun" and some old nuggets including of course "Save Me" (from the "Magnolia" soundtrack), which Aimee reminded us she lost the Oscar for Best Song that year to Phil Collins (needless to say to overwhelming boo's from the audience, just beautiful). In all, "Smilers" is a great album. The packaging comes with a very nice 32 page booklet of drawings, pictures and lyrics to the songs. |
