Academy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Aimee Mann brought her eclectic vocal styling to a packed Quick Center on Saturday. Mann, best known for her work on the “Magnolia” and “The Last Kiss” soundtracks, played to her devoted and diverse fan base.
British import David Ford opened for Mann. Ford, a cross between an upbeat Damien Rice and a politically charged James Blunt, is truly a solo artist. Ford played every instrument himself, feeding the sounds of the piano, guitar, harmonica, tambourine and background vocals into a looping tape system, and then singing on top of that.
Ford, whose album “I Sincerely Apologise for All the Trouble I’ve Caused,” debuted last year, was warmly received by anticipatory Mann fans.
Much like Mann herself, the songs from her last album, “The Forgotten Arm,” are simple yet moving; expressing universal themes of love and loss.
To the delight of her fans, she played “Save Me,” which is “also known as the song that lost the Oscar to Phil Collins,” said Mann.
She jumped from the guitar to the piano and played an unrecorded song entitled “Medicine Wheel,” a track likely to appear on an album to be released after the first of next year, according to Mann.
Besides Mann’s obvious talent, collaboration with her husband Michael Penn, brother of actor Sean Penn, has afforded her opportunities to write and perform tracks for major movie soundtracks.
The literary qualities of Mann’s ballads allowed individual songs to speak for themselves. Anyone who watched Mann could see that she truly felt her lyrics, especially when she closed her eyes or when her toes started tapping. At those moments, the clarity and range of Mann’s voice shined through and there was an air of comfortable confidence in her performance.
Fans applauded when Mann announced that she finished recording a Christmas album due out later this fall.
The drawbacks of the performance were no fault of Mann’s. Firstly, the show was barely publicized to the student body. Secondly, the crowd lost their enthusiasm at points throughout the show. The mood swings were apparent in the small venue.
Nonetheless, in our current musical culture, saturated with wannabe singer-songwriters who think angst-filled lyrics and a pretty face will make them famous, Aimee Mann distinguishes herself as a truly brilliant musician.
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