On this, her latest, Mann mines a similar seam to that which yielded the riches to be found on The Forgotten Arm (see here, here and here), and to similar effect. Smilers is very much a twilight, autumnal record, guitar replaced almost entirely by piano and vocals consistently at the lower end of her register giving proceedings a muffled, quietly mournful air.
Smilers sees Mann further developing her seemingly increasingly downbeat take on pop classicism, easy listening am radio elements tempered by her unerring control of the form; while not overtly framed as a 'concept' album a la Forgotten Arm, there's a clear thread running through it and a sort of elegant musicality that I elsewise associate more or less exclusively with Summerteeth onwards-Wilco and New Adventures/Up-era R.E.M. when it comes to recentish pop music. "Looking for Nothing" is the song in which I hear that most clearly; it, "Great Beyond" and "Medicine Wheel" (those two coming across somewhat like the hinge pairing of "Little Bombs" and "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart" which appears at a similar point in Forgotten Arm) and the hushed "Little Tornado" are my favourites. The record's yet to lodge squarely in my chest, but I can feel it working its way there...and, needless to say, it's marvellous just to have new Aimee Mann to listen to.
