Aimee Mann's new album, Smilers, comes out in two weeks. Of course I'll pre-order it, but still I couldn't help buying the first single, "Freeway," on iTunes. It's another classic. I'll write more about the album after I've had some time to listen to it.But I saw her over the summer, performing some of the songs from the album, I was digging them. The sonic theme of this album is "no electric guitars." As Aimee said, "The electric guitar is shit outta luck on this one."
Aimee's friend and sometimes collaborator, Elvis Costello, has a new album with his rock band, The Imposters, Momofuku. I'm not one of those people who adore everything he's done, but the one song from the album that I bought, "American Gangster Time," is pretty great. I've liked lots of Elvis's rock stuff over the past few years, especially the song "45."
Mudhoney has a new album, The Lucky Ones, which may be a sarcastic reference to their fortunes, compared to some other Seattle bands. Then again, the Mudhoney guys are still alive and rocking. I dug some of the songs from their last album, Under A Billion Suns, and the one before that, Since We've Become Translucent. It's like, they're putting out some great music, but no one is really noticing.
