Whatever (1993)

Aimee Mann's debut album, "Whatever", is a quirky collection of off-kilter guitar driven pop-- many of the trademarks in Mann's music are already in place, the sarcastic lyrics, male harmony vocals, and fantastic songwriting are there, but the music is a bit different than we'd see-- there's some pieces that point to the future, but largely, this is an album of jangly indie pop music.

The music excels at its best when Mann manages to coax her saracastic lyric and deadpan vocal into a sort of aggressive, ecstatic delivery ("I Should've Been Known", "Put Me On Top"), or when it clearly points to the feax-folky direction that would be coming in years to come (the brilliantly melancholy "4th of July", "Stupid Thing"). There's a couple misfires on this one as a result (sacchriney pop song "Could've Been Anyone", the conceptually brilliant but lifelessly executed "Jacob Marley's Chain"), although this is all going to be pretty subjective, the music is pleasant enough, some of it just lacks bite.

Its a beginning, and better things are to come-- if you're interested in Mann, don't start here, check one of the more recent albums, but if you've got those, this makes for an interesting listen.

Tracks on Whatever:

• I Should've Known
• Fifty Years After The Fair
• 4th Of July
• Could've Been Anyone
• Put Me On Top
• Stupid Thing
• Say Anything
• Jacob Marley's Chain
• Mr. Harris
• I Could Hurt You Now
• I Know There's A Word For This
• I've Had It
• Way Back When

Performing on Whatever:

Aimee Mann - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar and Bass
Michael Hausman - Drums and Percussion
Jim Keltner - Drums
Randy Brion - Trombone
Jon Brion - electric Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocals
Buddy Judge - Acoustic Guitar and vocals
Roger McGuinn - Electric guitar, vocals