Mann’s debut solo album, Whatever, came out 25 years ago this year, but its release on Imago Records in 1993 wasn’t so much a new beginning as a crucial step in an uphill climb. She was a few years into her 30s by the time she got back on track. Everything’s Different Now kicked off a decade-plus of frustration and stasis that Mann would suffer at the hands of her label. Everything’s Different Now, ‘Til Tuesday’s aptly titled third and final album, was dead on arrival in 1988, even though it showcased a tremendous development in Mann’s songwriting palette and evinced a prescient understanding of where power pop and alternative music were headed. Additionally, it was an early indicator of Mann’s penchant for character study, drawing outside the lines of boy-meets-girl love songs.ĭespite ‘Til Tuesday’s quick jump to stardom with their first album (also titled Voices Carry) and a respectable showing with their second, 1986’s Welcome Home (which included the top 40 hit “What About Love”), the band soon thereafter fell out of favor with then-label, Epic Records, following a reshuffling of personnel on the executive end. Its well-directed (if heavy-handed) music video was an MTV staple, and its omnipresence in the summer of 1985 was a unique picture of defiance in the age of David Lee Roth. “Voices Carry” fit within the confines of pop storytelling while sacrificing none of its protagonist’s all-too-real torment - a rare feat for even the most accomplished songwriters. Riding a slick, close-picked groove in a smoky atmosphere, it told a harrowing, finely detailed story of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship. Despite its superficial new-wave signifiers, “Voices Carry” wasn’t merely a vacuous byproduct of the Me Generation. She hit it big at the age of 24 with one of the first songs she ever wrote, “Voices Carry,” a top-10 hit for her band ‘Til Tuesday. “While she was working, I was working,” Anderson wrote.Before she had no luck at all, Aimee Mann had beginner’s luck. 2, which shared four tracks with Magnolia’s soundtrack recording). The next of her works borrowed by Anderson is the previously unreleased 1994 track “Momentum.” Heard echoing through the walls of Claudia’s apartment of Claudia’s (Melora Walters) apartment, the song serves as the foundation of the noise complaint that draws Officer Jim (John C.Reilly) into her life and begins the intersection of the film’s previously isolated plots.Īnderson cops to his privilege in having access to Mann’s deeper catalogue in the soundtrack liners, praising the benefit of hearing demos and works-in-progress for Mann’s next album (2000’s Bachelor No. The timing of Mann’s material is crucial to the plot of Magnolia, as it seemingly always signifies a seismic shift.
The characters – all of whom will eventually intertwine – are introduced in their own pockets of Anderson’s universe, as Mann repeats “one is the loneliest number.”
It’s interesting to note the choice of Mann’s voice borrowing classic material (the recording itself comes from a 1995 Nilsson tribute album and features backing vocals from founding members of Squeeze and The Rutles), but the choice seems fitting. Mann’s cover of Harry Nilsson is stretched over twice its recorded run-time on-screen as Anderson introduces all the primaries whose stories will be woven together over the following three hours.
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