Album Review: Bachelor No. 2 by Aimee Mann

The opening song of Aimee Mann's first full-length album in five years ponders the eternal question: "How Am I Different?" Anyone who has listened to her previous albums, and now this masterpiece, knows the answer. First (and foremost), Mann's songwriting manages to capture emotion at its most intense and set it to a beautiful yet powerful melody. Critically lauded but largely commercially underappreciated, Mann's music is very album-oriented, with no one song standing out as an obvious "single." Rather, all of the songs fit together to form the complex latticework of emotions that runs throughout Bachelor No. 2.

Mann's battles with her previous record labels resulted in the loss of not only her contract but also the rights to this album. After purchasing back her master tapes and finishing the album on her own terms, Mann has emerged with a stronger, more fiercely independent voice. In one of the album's highlights, co-written by Elvis Costello, Mann casts herself as the protagonist in "The Fall of the World's Own Optimist." She tracks her descent from innocence to her current perception of reality, where there's no point overriding objections, because that's "flogging the horse/When the horseman has up and died."

Mann's diverse blend of music ranges from the sultry and ambient "Calling It Quits" to the infectious pop of "Ghost World." Yet as a whole, they gel to form one of the best albums in recent memory. A