Mann and Magnolia are a perfect match
By TIMOTHY COLLINS
Scene Music Critic
Movie soundtracks today seem to just capitalize off of a few old hit singles and some big name artists to sell copies. Rarely does a soundtrack come along that fully capture the essence, mood and feeling of a film. But Paul Thomas Anderson, with his film Magnolia, has done it. He recruited Aimee Mann, leader of the '80s band, `Til Tuesday, to write and contribute her songs to the film.
The album opens with Mann's cover of Three Dog Night's unknown gem "One." Mann delivers the lyrics with a certain passion that makes the listener feel as if she is singing right to them as she says, "One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do."
"Deathly" opens with Mann asking, "Now that I've met you, would you object to, never seeing me again?" The listener almost feels like answering her. Like the rest of the album, this song centers around Mann's smart lyrics and catchy melodies. This is one of the catchiest albums in a while; the listener will be singing all of these songs after they listen to them without even realizing it.
Each one of Mann's new contributions seems to build upon and get even better than the one that proceeded it. "Driving Sideways," "You Do" and the instrumental "Nothing Is Good Enough" are all great songs that will not be forgotten anytime soon after listening. But Mann saves her best for last.
The single "Save Me" has already garnered Mann an Oscar nomination for Best Ori-ginal Song and will almost certainly get a Grammy nomination next year. She sings "From the ranks of the freaks, who suspect you would never love anyone," and asks to be saved with the urgency that fits the characters of the film perfectly.
But Mann also contri-butes some of the great songs from her first two solo albums to the soundtrack. "Momentum," and "Build That Wall" are both some of the better songs of her career. But "Wise Up" from 1996's I'm With Stupid provides one of the best moments on the soundtrack and the best in the film as the characters sing Mann's heart-wrenching lyrics: "It's not going to stop until you wise up."
But alongside Mann's nine contributions, the soundtrack boasts two '70s classics from Supertramp — the great "Goodbye Stranger" and "Logical Song" — and an early '90s catchy dance tune, Gabrielle's "Dreams."
Anderson's Magnolia is one of the more interesting films to come out of Hollywood in recent years and the sad, dire situations that its characters are presented with are perfectly represented by its soundtrack. It offers catchy new and old songs from Aimee Mann alongside some great old songs, and the only thing that the listener might regret about it is that there isn't more Aimee Mann.
All Scene Stories for Tuesday, February 22, 2000
