“That was a true story: Carrie [Brownstein] had hired a cleaning service and the girl who showed up was a singer in a band they liked. People love that show. I love that show. And yeah, more people have recognized me from Portlandia than music in the last year.”
Aimee Mann
American singer-songwriter Aimee Mann has had a long and storied career since she first gained national prominence in 1985, with her new wave band 'Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry": a captivating pop single about an abusive relationship, which was accompanied by an iconic music video (it won the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in 1985). 80s music expert Steve Peake placed it fifth on his list of the top 10 songs of 1985: "Combining dreamy keyboards with a uniquely feminist theme of romantic independence, Mann & Co. became the stuff of '80s legend". As AllMusic's Stewart Mason notes, however, the song positioned Mann as a one-hit wonder in the minds of most music listeners. He nevertheless credits it for being one of the most distinctive radio singles of the era: "Mike Thorne's airy, spacious production does wonders both for Mann's breathy voice and the time-release hooks in the chorus, which brilliantly releases the tension that builds throughout the stark, paranoid verses".
The quiet individualism and steely sense of independence that Mann portrayed in the video would spill over into her real-life dealings with the record industry: Mann's story of breaking free from her recording contract with Geffen in the 1990s was widely known. Dissatisfied with her lack of agency over her own artistry, she bought the rights for her third full-length album, Bachelor No. 2, Or the Last Remains of the Dodo (2000) and released it herself.
She's never looked back since, and can be deemed to have paved the way for many independent recording artists. While Mann has never recreated the same mainstream success of "Voices Carry", her work has received critical acclaim and her self-released and distributed albums have sold resonably well (she managed sell 200,000 copies of Bachelor No. 2 by herself). Mann, with her brand of intelligent introversion, self-deprecating humour, penchant for melancholic and melodic mid-tempo blues-pop and Annie Hall-esque androgynous fashion sense may have a relatively hard time winning over new music listeners, but her immense gifts as a wordsmith/lyricist and scholar of the human condition are apparent to anyone who's listening.
True to form, Mann's "Calling It Quits" (a track from Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo) delivers a poignant and insightful song about the psychological costs incurred from being a cog in a recording company's cash-making artifice - and the jubilation that comes with breaking free:
'He's a serious misterShake his hand and he'll twist your armWith Monopoly moneyWe'll be buying the funny farmSo I'll do flips, and get paid in chipsFrom a diamond as big as the Ritz--Then I'm calling it quits(Calling it quits)
Eyes the color of candyLies to cover the handicapThough your slippers are rubyYou'll be led to the booby trapAnd there's no prizeJust a smaller sizeSo I'm wearing the shoe 'til it fitsThen I'm calling it quits
Yes, I'm calling it quitsYes, I'm calling it quitsNow he's numbering himself among the masterminds(Calling it quits)Cause he's hit upon the leverage of valentines(Calling it quits)Lifting dialogue from Judy Garland storylines...Where get-tough girls turn into gold minesAll those Polaroid babiesTaking chances with rabiesHappy to tear me to bits--Well, I'm calling it quitsYes I'm calling it quitsYes I'm calling it quitsYes I'm calling it quitsYes I'm calling it...'
Lyrics: Genius
