The Universe’s Delicate Skin

Aimee Mann “You Fall”

Aimee Mann’s new album Queens of the Summer Hotel is a set of songs written for a stage musical adaptation of Susanna Kaysen’s memoir Girl, Interrupted, a project that’s fallen into limbo in the wake of the pandemic. It makes a lot of sense why Mann would be asked to do such a thing – through her career she’s always had a keen insight into fragile and volatile emotional states, and approaching characters at their lowest lows with respect and empathy. In terms of substance the material on this record could just as well be another Aimee Mann record, so the main difference here is in style – strings and horns that evoke a very 20th Century sort of stuffy melodrama, but played without a trace of sappiness. “You Fall” is particularly stunning in its starkness, opening in medias res on a woman who’s trying to hold it together and present as a normal person but on the precipice of succumbing to despair. Mann’s lyrics are cooly observational but her voice conveys a calm compassion. This song is coming from a place of being keenly aware, likely through personal experience, of how easy it is to fall apart – she’s not about to judge this woman or anyone else.

Buy it from Bandcamp.