Aimee Mann: The Forgotten Arm

(Herald rating: * * *)

The closest Aimee Mann has got to the mainstream spotlight in her solo career was her soundtrack for the film Magnolia with her songs playing more than just a decorative role in the acclaimed drama.

Her fifth solo album, it seems, has its own imaginary film in mind - its 12 songs peg out a road movie set in the early 70s about a drug-addicted boxer, Vietnam vet John, and his girlfriend Caroline battling with his habit as they travel across America. Which also makes it a companion piece to Mann's last, 2002's Lost in Space, one of her lesser works for being weighed down with its references to junkiedom.

It takes some effort to follow The Forgotten Arm's narrative thread without the help of the lyric sheet, but that doesn't stop it being a another album to show off Mann's long underappreciated gifts as a songsmith.

The arrangements via producer John Henry might be a conventional mix of West Coast country-rock and piano-centred ballads. But the best songs (Goodbye Caroline, She Really Wants You, I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas) shows her way with bittersweet literate lyrics carried by captivating tunes.

As an imaginary movie, The Forgotten Arm may not be a great script, but it sure manages many a scene as memorable as any Mann has sung before.

Label: FMR/V2