'Til Tuesday - "Welcome Home" and "Everything's Different Now", C/D?

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Not much TT talk on ILM...anyway, how are these two albums? I can't stand Aimee Mann's solo stuff but the TT I've heard is real pretty (a guy I dated loved "David Denies"). Are these two albums worthy investments?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

C'mon, anyone???

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

I'm the opposite. I adore Mann's solo stuff and hate 'til tuesday.

― You fondle my trigger then you blame my gun / Kate (papa november), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

Everything's Different Now is a lot better than Aimee's last album, which disappointed me awfully. Um, I'd buy it if I were you, Alfred, there are good things on it, although some of it seems a bit stifled compared to what was going on at the time, vis-a-vis record company shenanigans ("Write with Diane Warren, Aimee! NOW!"), but it's overall worth a listen.

― edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 23:00 (twenty years ago)

My first problem with Aimee Mann (among others) is her voice. I can tolerate lots of non-singers, but Aimee's kind of non-singing strikes this singer as inadequate and frequently terrifying. This is more noticeable in 'Til Tuesday's stuff.

I like "Coming Up Close" and "What About Love" - what does the rest of "Welcome Home" sound like, Edward?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

Everything's Different Now = mostly classic, and one of the most underrated breakup albums EVAH.

The first five:
"Everything's Different Now"
"Rip In Heaven"
"Why Must I"
"'J' For Jules"
"(Believed You Were) Lucky"

A perfect pop heartbreak suite, from the first four measures of "Everything's Different" on. The sound, while dated, is much less spare/intimate/direct than you'll find in her solo work.

After that, things get a little mushier, though there are a couple more decent tracks. If this had been an EP, it would have been stone classic in my book.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

"Welcome Home" is great as a unified record (something Aimee Mann's particularly good at), or at least it was all the times I listened to it on my faux-Walkman in the back of the school bus.

"Everything's Different Now" has "(Believed You Were) Lucky".

I've just recently discovered "Lost In Space" -- and whatever her weaknesses, when I discover an Aimee Mann song I like, something in it makes me listen to it over and over again, which I don't normally do with music. The enabler/addict thing, I guess.

― Flaneur, Wednesday, 8 June 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

Rogermexico OTM. Production aside, I'd forgotten how strong those songs are.

I had a college roommate/friend who was WAY into that record. I think he listened to it continually from the day it came out until the first AM solo record. (Which had its moments, as I recall.)

Me, I'm not a superfan or anything, and I don't have a taste for her recent solo stuff, but she was decent live the one time I saw her ('94?).

― JAS, Wednesday, 8 June 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

I can't figure out if i don't like the forgotten arm because it's boring or just more of the same or both.

― You fondle my trigger then you blame my gun / Kate (papa november), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 01:59 (twenty years ago)

Kate, it's boring and plodding. More of the same, maybe, but done less well. You knew what the songs would sound like as soon as you saw the titles, i.e. "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart". And it's telling that the best song on it ("I Can't Help You Anymore") sounds like my LEAST favourite song off BNo2 ("Susan") - that's diminishing. Also all the songs seem to go on FOREVER even though only some of them do in actuality.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 02:24 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I'll say something a bit more about "Welcome Home" when I get, er, home, as I'd like to listen to some of it RIGHT ABOUT NOW so what I say isn't complete tosh.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

Unfortunately my husband bought me the forgotten arm as a gift. I probably wouldn't have bought it myself. I kind of feel bad that I don't like it much.

― You fondle my trigger then you blame my gun / Kate (papa november), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 02:31 (twenty years ago)

welcome home is pretty much the shit. who can deny those high-pitched "hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo"s?? yes.

― rockaction (rockaction), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 02:47 (twenty years ago)

Sympathizing with Aimee Mann's boyfriend in the "Voices Carry" video - C or D?

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 03:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm confused about the Aimee-can't-sing thing, just as I'm confused about Xgau's dismissing her for ice-blond reasons and lack of lyrical invention.

Yes, she's cool, even drony in her delivery, but nobody grills New Order for the same. And the remoteness adds an interesting edge to her admittedly only functional lyrics.

But melody-wise--she's the topper-most. And nobody talks about her super asskick bass palying, which was a highlight of a show I saw.

Anyway--yes to "Everything's Dif" if you can stand the tin-Linn production.

― Ian in Brooklyn, Wednesday, 8 June 2005 05:03 (twenty years ago)

Also, it must be noted that Aimee guested on Buffy, playing something doleful during a vampire battle, leading to her pronouncing the immortal line, "Man, I just hate playing vampire towns."

― Ian in Brooklyn, Wednesday, 8 June 2005 05:10 (twenty years ago)

"I'm confused about Xgau's dismissing her for ice-blond reasons and lack of lyrical invention."

Actually, he detests her air of entitlement, her self-pity, the absence of a decent rhythm section. Maybe she was better in 'Til Tuesday after all.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 12:04 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but Xgau hates a lot of things that are very good, and the day ILM gets over monolithic critical entities the better.

Okay, "Welcome Home". It's very good, that's my summary. It's interesting that solo-Aimee's "Momentum" seems to cannibalise "Will She Just Fall Down", in fact, I get the feeling if PT Anderson had failed to get the rights to Supetramp, he could have used WSJFD and it would have been about the same anyway.

"On Sunday", well it's surprising how well something like this stacks up because on first listen it's so inconsequential and barely there, but on a few listens, it's really quite subtle and lovely and if people have a problem with AM's non-singing, this might suit them, as she's not soaring so much above the music as she would go on to do later, or earlier (esp "Voices Carry"), and the chorus is a winner, so there.

The break in the middle of "Have Mercy" is my favourite part of the album. When you think about it, that sort of 80s pop-rock break - nobody does them anymore, not even bands that ape the era. Well, they're stupid. MORE MORE MORE. Even better because it goes back into the delightfully resigned verses making the chorus pay-off that little bit sweeter because you have to wait.

"Coming Up Close" is so unimpeachably classic I don't have to say anything. Basically, I rate "Welcome Home" as the better of the latter two TT albums - more consistent, but the first half of EDN is... fantastic.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 13:15 (twenty years ago)

But I didn't bring up Xgau first, Edward. And he's hardly a monolithic presence on this thread, or this board.

Anyway, I'll probably snatch up "Welcome Home" as I just relistened to "David Denies" and it's quite lovely.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

I know you didn't, Alfred! I was really responding to another post. But he comes up rather a lot more than you might realise.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

I loved a dubbed cassette of Welcome Home SO GODDAMN MUCH circa 1987 that now I need to go find a copy. I've got no opinion of the other one; I don't think I've ever heard it. But yes, "Coming Up Close."

― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 8 June 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

That thing on buffy was cringeworthy beyond belief.

― You fondle my trigger then you blame my gun / Kate (papa november), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

"Coming Up Close" heard at CVS this afternoon. Moving!

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 November 2012 00:16 (twelve years ago)

Sometimes my fave song ever.

― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Monday, 12 November 2012 03:02 (twelve years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqXUdE5wR3w

lol80s

(hell of a song)

― cruel silver of hope (Eazy), Monday, 12 November 2012 06:06 (twelve years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAZ7K6ZMROA

― cruel silver of hope (Eazy), Monday, 12 November 2012 06:12 (twelve years ago)

2009:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGCfZtnI4fI

― cruel silver of hope (Eazy), Monday, 12 November 2012 06:21 (twelve years ago)

I am in serious danger of watching that 1986 clip of "Coming Up Close" over and over again all day.

― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Monday, 12 November 2012 21:07 (twelve years ago)

Welcome Home, as I'm learning, has four or five good tunes -- some of her best ever, solo or in TT -- but the arrangements are stodgy in that mid eighties way, forcing her to yelp in decidedly unmelodic ways.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 November 2012 21:10 (twelve years ago)

The production and arrangements are indeed very 80's, something I had to spend a little time getting over when I first discovered this album in '96*, particularly with "Lover's Day," but I'm so over that by now that I honestly would have to struggle to hear it anymore. Curious, though: which 4/5 songs do you like? This is one of my all time favourite albums, unquestionably, but I'd have a particularly hard time hearing a bad word about "Coming Up Close," "No One Is Watching You Now," "Angels Never Call" and "On Sunday."

*cue, normally, the story of j3r's first love/heartbreak, and the therapeutic role that this album and my discovery of it played in its ridiculously protracted aftermath, but I have neither the time nor the desire to bore you to go into that now.

― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Monday, 12 November 2012 21:23 (twelve years ago)

Those are exactly my favorites, plus "David Denies" (what a strange song!) and "What About Love" (that pa-poom-poo synth effect over the chorus guitars).

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 November 2012 21:35 (twelve years ago)

twelve years pass...

First show in 33 year's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWqEl_7Y8mY

― Bee OK, Sunday, 18 May 2025 22:34 (five months ago)

Little rusty but very sweet nonetheless

― calstars, Monday, 19 May 2025 03:06 (five months ago)

Yeah--not the most polished performance, but I couldn't be happier that this exists.

― cryptosicko, Monday, 19 May 2025 13:51 (five months ago)

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