A night blooming soundtrack for Magnolia

From the folksy song stylings of former Til' Tuesday frontwoman, Aimee Mann to the fond-chuckle-inducing Supertramp anthems, the Magnolia soundtrack is a work of art. Like it's predecessor, the gloriously silly Boogie Nights soundtrack, Paul Thomas Anderson (director of both films) had a personal hand in selecting the tunes, and that's probably why they are both as good as the films they accompanied.

But the Magnolia soundtrack really is Aimee Mann's show. Frankly, like most of the rest of the world, I had forgotten her but remembered the power ballad, "Voices Carry." Since then, she has learned to use her diaphragm when she sings, has gotten more profound as a songwriter, and has married Michael Penn, folkie musician and brother to Sean.

Mann has grown in so many ways…her songwriting has the spare quality often lacking in modern music. She is sort of reminiscent of Tori Amos, Liz Phair, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon, but like none of them at the same time. She has a mature, plaintive voice that never crosses over into being whiny, and the instrumentation is tight but elegant. She avoids unnecessary flourishes, which is great - too much trickery would undoubtedly taint the airy quality of the music. It sounds like something you could listen to on a summer night in a cornfield, while drinking a nice bordeaux.

Interestingly, Mann and director Anderson are friends, and the creative process for both happened in a very intertwined manner. Apparently Anderson was listening to Mann's rough tapes for her upcoming album while he was writing the script. (The aforementioned "upcoming album" is called Bachelor No. 2, or, the last remains of the dodo, and was recently released. It has a lot of the same songs as this soundtrack does, since that's what Anderson had requested.) So his work began to reflect hers, and when he asked her to write music especially for the film, her music grew around his working drafts of the script. The result was one of the most integrated uses of music in a film since The Graduate.

In fact, the opening line of the lovely tune, "Deathly," is spoken in the film by Claudia, a character who is a focal point and who apparently evolved almost completely through Mann's music. The line, reflective of Mann's style, is "Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing each other again?" It goes on in the song:
Cause I can't afford to climb aboard you.
No one's got that much ego to spend.
So don't work your stuff,
Because I've got troubles enough.
No, don't pick on me
When one act of kindness could be
Deathly.

Other standout tracks include "You Do," a soaring non-ballad, "Save Me," which is a twisted love song, and her unexpectedly appealing cover of the rock oddity "One." (You know, "One is the loneliest number…")

This is the Aimee Mann starter set, and you will be able to listen to it again and again, I promise. There is something new every time. Listen to it on a night when you're feeling mysterious.